By Geoff Dyer, Vintage Books, New York, NY (2014) Reviewed by Nathan Albright Whether or not a reader appreciates this book will greatly depend on their mindset. If someone comes to this book looking for someone who is serious about the United States Navy, has lots of respect for the military or the religious and
By Geoffrey Bennett (originally published B.T. Batsford Ltd., London, UK 1964), Pan & Sword Books Ltd. Barnsley, UK (2015) Reviewed by Tim McGrath Few historians, on land or sea, can match the depth and breadth of the work of Captain Geoffrey Bennett. As a Royal Navy officer who served Great Britain in war and peacetime,
By Rick Campbell, St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by William H. White A gripping, action-packed novel that is just plausible enough to be pulled from the headlines of today’s paper. Commander Campbell, a former submariner, knows his submarines and the technology they use to fulfill their assignments; his apparent knowledge, whether first-hand
By Senior Chief George J. Chambers, U.S. Navy (Retired), Heritage Books, Berwyn Heights (2015) Reviewed by Captain Howard R. Portnoy, U.S. Navy (Retired) George J. Chambers, the author of this book, served twenty years in the US Navy, retiring as a Senior Chief Firecontrolman in 1970. During his naval career, he served aboard five destroyer
By Jonathan Dimbleby, Oxford University Press, New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by Captain J. F. “Bookie” Boland, U.S. Navy (Ret.) The long campaign between the Western Allies and Germany’s U-boat force during the Second World War is the subject of Jonathan Dimbleby’s new book, The Battle of the Atlantic: How the Allies Won the War.
Reviewed by John Grady David Porter remains one of the most fascinating personalities in the early American Navy. His quickly written, often self-serving but surprisingly candid Journal about his wartime activities in the Pacific set a standard for naval writing that remains informative and clear. It was also highly popular at the time, fanned by
By Will Laidlaw, Pen and Sword, South Yorkshire (2016) Reviewed by Adam Kline Lt. Col. Will Laidlaw, who served as commander of the UK’s 656 attack helicopter squadron during NATO’s 2011 intervention in Libya, personally flew night strike missions in from the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean. From June to August, his unit’s Apache helicopters fired
By Russel M. Lawson, University Press of New England, Lebanon (2015) Reviewed by Warren Riess, Ph.D. This book has the feel of two different works. One is John Smith in the last two decades of his life. The other is a detailed description of his 1614 voyage to North America. Lawson works the two together,
By Christopher Phillips, Oxford University Press, New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by Thomas P. Ostrom University of Cincinnati history professor Christopher Phillips wrote a different assessment of the complex cultural and political factors in the Border States before, during, and after the Civil War of 1861-1865. Phillips challenges historical interpretations that paint the Border States
By Jim Stempel, McFarland and Co., Publishers, Jefferson, NC (2011) Reviewed by Robert P. Largess Writing years after the Civil War, Gideon Welles remarked of William B. Cushing: “…the great chief of the American Navy, Farragut…said to me that while no navy had braver or better officers than ours, young Cushing was the hero of
By Brad Snyder and Tom Sileo, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA (forthcoming 2016) Reviewed by Stephen Phillips Brad Snyder felt a call to service, choosing a path through the U.S. Naval Academy to leadership as a U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Officer. EOD Technicians, our military’s bomb squad, serve in the vanguard of modern
By Graham A. Thomas, Skyhorse Publishing, New York, NY (2015) Reviewed by William H. White Henry Morgan was a “pirate” (the author used “pirate,” “buccaneer,” and “privateer” virtually interchangeably) whose rampages in the Caribbean and on the Spanish Main were the stuff of legends. Many authors, both contemporary to Morgan and modern, have written copious
By Charles D. Stanton, Pen & Sword Maritime, Barnsley, UK (2015) Reviewed by Nathan Albright As a former US naval officer and airline pilot whose research has been in medieval Mediterranean history, Charles Stanton is well equipped to undertake the task of writing a comprehensive introduction to medieval naval warfare. With several well-received articles in
By Mark K. Ragan, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, TX (2015) Reviewed by John Grady Mark Ragan’s Confederate Saboteurs does a wonderful job of shining new light on the extraordinary steps that the government in Richmond, and more importantly the inventive men from all over the seceded states, were willing to take to win
By Dwight Sturtevant Hughes, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2016) Reviewed by Diana L. Ahmad, Ph.D. A graduate of the Naval Academy in 1967, Dwight Hughes provides an excellent account of CSS Shenandoah that is easily understood by historians and lay audiences alike. Readers quickly come to feel the movement of the ship as she
