Oceans Ventured: Winning the Cold War at Sea By John Lehman, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, NY, (2018) Previewed by David F. Winkler, Ph.D. NOTE: Having been asked to review Oceans Ventured for an academic journal later in the year where I will detail how this fits into the growing historiography of the
Osprey’s Soviet Destroyers of World War II (New Vanguard #256) by Alexander Hill; illustrated by Felipe Rodriguez Reviewed by Jeff Schultz Alexander Hill’s Soviet Destroyers of World War II fills an important gap in the neglected story of the tragedy and triumph of Soviet naval operations in World War II. Hill’s background in Soviet
Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on the World’s Greatest Scientific Expedition By Stephen R. Bown Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Independent Scholar Island of the Blue Foxes tells a gripping story that holds the reader’s attention while remaining a well-documented piece of nonfiction. Bown tells the story of two Russian Arctic treks: the unsuccessful
Davies, Peter E. US Navy F-4 Phantom II Units of the Vietnam War 1969-1973. Osprey Publishing, UK. 2018. 96 pages. Ill. $23. Peter Davies has written many Osprey books, including quite a few dealing with the F-4 in Vietnam. This new book, no. 125 in Osprey’s Combat Aircraft series, continuing the story from No. 116
Ginter, Steve with Joe Weathers, Jr. Vought SB2U Vindicator. 2018. 249 pp. Ill. $52.95. Number 106 in the successful Naval Fighters series, this new book is one of a few dedicated to Vought’s dive-bomber that saw very little combat but flew under at least three colors—U.S., French and British. Perhaps best known for
British Destroyers 1939-45: Wartime-built classes (New Vanguard #253) By Angus Konstam, Osprey, New York (2017). Reviewed by Jeffrey Schultz Angus Konstam, a naval historian and a prolific Osprey titles author, pens his second in the British destroyer series which follows up the earlier British Destroyers 1939-45: Pre-war Classes (New Vanguard #246). This work
U-Boats Off Bermuda: Patrol Summaries and Merchant Ship Survivors Landed in Bermuda 1940-1944 By Eric Wiberg, Fonthill Media, Charleston, SC: (2017). Reviewed by Timothy Heck Eric Wiberg’s U-Boats Off Bermuda recounts a story of the western side of the War in the Atlantic. With much of the scholarship focused on the combatants, and
Crucible of a Generation: How the Attack on Pearl Harbor Transformed America. By J. Kenneth Brody, Routledge, New York, (2017). Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D., Independent Scholar “All I know is what I read in the papers.” Will Rogers (Brody 2017:vi). This is an often mentioned quote (with variations) cited by author
Incidents at Sea: American Confrontations and Cooperation with Russia and China 1945-2016 by David F. Winkler, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2017). Reviewed by Charles Bogart The Cold War was exceptionally “cold” on land, as there were very few confrontations between Soviet and American ground forces along the land border between NATO and
In the Shadow of Greatness: The Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America’s Longest War By Joshua Welle, John Ennis, Katherine Kranz, and Graham Plaster, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD. (2012). Reviewed by Capt. Lee Duckworth, USN (Ret.) In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America’s Longest
The Strategy of Victory: How George Washington Won the American Revolution By Thomas Fleming. Da Capo Press, New York. (2017). Reviewed by David Curtis Skaggs, PhD Few topics in American history have received more attention than the War for Independence and George Washington’s role in it. Into this crowded field Thomas Fleming (1927-2017) brings
Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail By Suzanne J. Stark, Naval Institute Press Annapolis, Md. (2017). Reviewed by Joseph-James Ahern Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail is a reprint of the late Suzanne Stark’s 1996 study of women who went to sea aboard Royal Navy warships
Neglected Skies: The Demise of British Naval Power in the Far East, 1922-42 Angus Britts. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2017). Reviewed by Joseph Moretz, Ph D Of the many years of fiscal stringency preceding the Second World War, Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond observed that a ‘two-ocean empire cannot be defended by a one-ocean
By Noell Wilson, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA (2015) Review by John M. Jennings, PhD Conventional wisdom among historians had long held that throughout most of the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868), Japan pursued a policy of self-imposed isolation from the outside world. Japanese historians even coined a term, sakoku, or “closed country,” to describe this paradigm.
By Ellen Gill, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, VA (2016) Reviewed by Joseph Moretz, PhD They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters may have been men in King George’s Navy, but they were not all bachelors. Those left behind—often for years at a time—did more than keep the
