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BOOK REVIEW – Embassy to the Eastern Court: America’s Secret First Pivot Toward Asia 1832-1837

By Andrew A. Jampoler, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2015) Reviewed by John Grady Having spent a great deal of time reading accounts and logbooks from the voyages of Thomas ap Catesby Jones, John “Mad Jack” Percival, John Downes, William Bolton Finch, Charles Wilkes, et al., of American encounters in the Pacific, in Asia, in

BOOK REVIEW – The Bridge to Airpower: Logistics Support for Royal Flying Corps Operations on the Western Front, 1914-18

By Peter Dye, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2015) Reviewed Larry A. Grant “In war we must expect a casualty list of 100% every three months in men and material and must be prepared to replace all our pilots, observers and machines at this rate….” Brig. Gen. Robert Brooke-Popham “Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals

BOOK REVIEW – The Court-Martial of Paul Revere: A Son of Liberty and America’s Forgotten Military Disaster

By Michael M. Greenburg, University Press of New England, Lebanon, NH (2014) Reviewed by Rear Adm. James D. Cossey, USN (Ret.) The Court-Martial of Paul Revere is a ‘three-fer’ book: a biography of Paul Revere, the story of the American Revolution and the early struggles of the Republic, and a detailed account of the 1779

BOOK REVIEW – The Most Dangerous Moment of the War: Japan’s Attack on the Indian Ocean, 1942

By John Clancy, Casemate Publishers, Oxford, UK (2015) Reviewed by Michael F. Solecki Naval activities in the Indian Ocean during World War II are rarely talked about in U.S. historical circles as it was primarily a British theater. In 1942 when the war broke out, Ceylon (modern day Sri-Lanka) was home base to the British

BOOK REVIEW – Striking the Hornet’s Nest: Naval Aviation and the Beginnings of Strategic Bombing in World War I

By Geoffrey L. Rossano and Thomas Wildenberg, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2015) Reviewed by David F. Winkler, Ph.D. With the centennial of America’s entry into World War I just over a year away, the Naval Institute Press could not have timed the publication of this book any better. It’s understood that World War I

BOOK REVIEW – Hunters and Killers; Vol. 1: Anti-Submarine Warfare from 1776 to 1943

By Norman Polmar and Edward Whitman, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2015) Reviewed by Robert P. Largess In a page-long “Perspective” prefacing this unusual book, the authors express the reason for its writing: “Since the early decades of the last century, several hundred non-fiction books have been written about submarines and submarine warfare.” This substantial

BOOK REVIEW – Fremantle’s Submarines: How Allied Submarines and Western Australians Helped to Win the War in the Pacific

By Michael Sturma, Annapolis, MD, Naval Institute Press (2015) Reviewed by Charles Bogart This book is a joy to read. The author, using a variety of primary sources, has compiled a social and administrative history of the U.S. Navy’s World War II submarine base at Fremantle, Australia. With the loss in December 1941 of the

BOOK REVIEW – The Zeebrugge and Ostend Raids, 1918

By Deborah Lake, Pen and Sword Military, Barnsley, UK (2015) Reviewed by Joseph Moretz, Ph.D. In a struggle of global proportions, minor acts at times achieve a resonance not measured by the ledger of gains and losses or the scale of their actual decisiveness. The Arab Revolt during the First World War may be cited

BOOK REVIEW – The U.S. Naval Institute on The U.S. Naval Academy: The History

Edited by Thomas J. Cutler, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2015) Reviewed by Michael F. Solecki In 1839, the federal government established the first formal non-private naval school in Philadelphia called the “Naval Asylum,” a somewhat daunting name by today’s grammatical vernacular. The school, the actual forerunner of the U.S. Naval Academy, was an academic

BOOK REVIEW – The Blockade-Runner Denbigh and the Union Navy: Including Glover’s Analysis of the West Gulf Blockade and Archival Materials and Notes

By J. Barto Arnold III and Robert W. Glover, Denbigh Shipwreck Project Publication, Institute of Nautical Archaeology, College Station, TX (2015) Reviewed by Mark Lardas In May 1865, a month after Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia, the blockade runner Denbigh ran aground attempting to enter Galveston Harbor, and was subsequently destroyed by Union

BOOK REVIEW – Syren’s Song: A Connor Stark Novel

By Claude Berube, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2015) Reviewed by Nathan Albright Claude Berube wrote this fictional novel as a reward to students of naval history. Many of the elegant touches, including the name of the ship, spring from the author’s own vivid experience within the United States Navy, where he is currently an

BOOK REVIEW – The Ingenious Life of Melbourne Smith – One Man’s Revival of Historic Sailing Vessels

By Paul Wood, Woods Maritime, Kamuela, HI (2015) Reviewed by Charles Bogart Paul Wood has written an excellent biographical account of naval architect Melbourne Smith who is the President of the International Historical Watercraft Society, and serves as Advisory Board Chairman for the National Maritime Historical Society and trustee of the American Ship Trust. Born

BOOK REVIEW – The Kraut: On Being German After 1940

By Erik Jurgen-Karl Dietrich, Self-Published (2015) Reviewed by Charles Bogart This self-published autobiography tells the story of Erik Jurgen-Karl Districh who was born in Germany in 1940. After the war, he lived in England until 1957, when he immigrated to the United States at age 17. After arriving in the United States, the author served

BOOK REVIEW – Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History

By Brian Kilmeade, Sentinel, Random House, New York, NY (2015) Reviewed by Vice Admiral Robert F. Dunn, U.S. Navy (Retired)  Written in lively style this book is both informative and a quick read. For most readers of Pull Together it will be a review of episodes in the early Navy, important to the history but

BOOK REVIEW – An Officer’s Story: A Politico-Military Journey

By Steve Kime, Authorhouse, Bloomington, IN (2015) Reviewed by David F. Winkler, Ph.D. One of the benefits of managing Naval History Book Reviews is that I get first dibs on incoming titles. Two decades ago, I interviewed Captain Steve Kime regarding his involvement with the Incidents at Sea Agreement negotiations and execution. He shared some