By David Cannadine, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK (2017) Reviewed by John Grady This to-the-point, short biography of Margaret Thatcher, the United Kingdom’s longest-serving prime minister, provides some interesting political parallels to today’s United States — the rise of populism to give voice to those left behind, cries to scale back government, demands to unleash
Edited by Richard J. Bailey, Jr., James W. Forsyth, Jr., and Mark O. Yesley, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2016) Reviewed by Steven K. Stein, Ph.D. This collection of eleven essays by current or former faculty of the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS) at Maxwell Air Force Base explores linkages between modern
By John J. Domagalski, Casemate Publishers, Philadelphia, PA (2016) Reviewed by John R. Satterfield, DBA Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three (MTB-3) joined the U.S. Navy’s Asiatic Fleet in the Philippines just three months before Japan attacked the islands on December 8, 1941. Six boats and 82 sailors under Lt. John D. Bulkeley’s command performed remarkably
By Chris Goss, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) This new book details one of World War II’s least known but, at the time, most efficient aircraft, if only for its psychological effect on allied, especially British, morale. For approximately three years, the Condor patrolled the convoy routes
Edited by David C. Evans, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (Hardcover,1986; Paperback, 2017) Reviewed By: Michael F. Solecki The Japanese Navy In World War II is a collection of interviews/essays previously published in various volumes of the United States Naval Institute’s Proceedings, as well as other publications from the 1950s and 1960s by former witnessing
Andrew Lambert, ed., Naval Institute Press Annapolis MD (2017) Reviewed by Joseph Moretz, Ph.D. Announcing the death of Sir Julian Corbett in 1922, The Times of London believed the nation had lost ‘a naval historian of remarkable gifts.’ Corbett was certainly that, but he was also much more as Andrew Lambert ably amplifies in this
Andrew S. Erickson, Ed. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2016) Reviewed by Dwayne Day, Ph.D. On April 26, China’s first indigenously-built aircraft carrier, still lacking a name, slipped into the sea. The smart-looking vessel bears a strong resemblance to China’s only operational carrier, built by the Soviets and bought from Ukraine. This new ship will
By Peter E. Davies, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK and New York, NY (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter Mersky, USNR (Ret.) No. 116 in the highly successful Combat Aircraft series from this prolific publisher and author, this new book is an excellent compilation of Navy squadrons that flew the F-4 in Southeast Asia. It’s one of
By Dave Stockwell, Book Publishers Network (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter B Mersky, USN (Ret.) The Vietnam War (roughly 1964-1973) was not only a series of albeit hard-fought, bloody aerial campaigns by aircrews who flew from hot, humid airfields throughout Southeast Asia, or the equally hot, humid undulating flight decks of Seventh Fleet carriers in
By AW1 Marc J. Frattasio, USNR (Ret), Self-Published (2016) Reviewed by Cdr. Peter D. Mersky, USN (Ret.) When you get a huge book like this with more than 700 heavily illustrated pages, it is a true labor of love. The author is a retired P-3 aircrewman and knows of which he writes. His wife is
By Kevin Emmet Foley, Hellgate Press, Ashland, OR (2016) Reviewed by William H. White Fort Enterprize is listed and sold as “historical fiction.” It is certainly fiction, but its historical claim leaves much to be desired. When a writer injects a fictitious character or several into an accurately portrayed historical context, it’s historical fiction; when
By Lisle A. Rose, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO (2016) Reviewed by Capt. Andrew C. A. Jampoler, USN (Ret.) Dr. Lisle Rose has taken on a challenge in this, his seventh book for the U. of M. Press. This history of U.S. Navy operations during World War I rightly begins by explaining that the
By John Wukovits, Da Capo Press, Boston, MA (2017) Reviewed by Charles Bogart The U.S. Navy’s World War II operational history in the Pacific is the story of destroyers, Tin Cans, engaging Japanese surface ships, submarines, and airplanes. The author, within the pages of this book, allows the reader to become part of the ships
By Eric Wentz, Tate Publishing, Mustang, OK (2013) Reviewed by Capt. Ralph L. DeFalco III, USN (Ret.) A novel in the best tradition of the works of Frederick Forsyth and Dan Brown, Killing Sharks: De Profundis by Eric Wentz is a thriller that takes the reader from the desolate mountains of the FATA on the
By Norman Friedman, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2016) Reviewed by Corbin Williamson, Ph.D. Fighters Over the Fleet takes prolific author Norman Friedman into one of the few areas of naval weaponry he has not previously examined.[1] Building on his earlier work on aircraft carrier development with Thomas Hone and Mark Mandeles as well as Freidman’s
