The US Navy: A Concise History by Craig L. Symonds (Oxford Universicy Press, New York, 2015, 136pp, references, index, biblio, ISBN 978-0-19-939494 -4 ; $18.95hc) Professor of history emeritus of the U nited States Naval Academy C raig L. Symonds, author of The Battle ofMidway, The Civil War at Sea, and Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europ e and the D-Day Landings, among others, was a perfect choice to write this abbreviated history of the United Scates Navy. Symonds, well versed in the h istory of the U S Navy, mas terfully reduced it to the key points without losing any thing essential. Beginning with George Washington's attempts to extend the impact of his Continental Army to the all-important waterways that aided and sometimes stymied his military efforts (1775 -1783), Symonds add resses the various rurning points that m ade the US Navy what is today. Along the way, he sets out the creation of the N avy in the age of sail, the technological changes from sail to steam, wood to iron and steel, and paddle wheels to propellers. H e does not neglect the politics that drove and sometimes nearly sank the Navy. Perhaps the most exciting chapters relate the rise to world prominence of the U S wa r fleet, those dealing with World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. Nothing of importance is omitted: the Korean wa r, the Lebanon crisis, the C uban missile crisis, the Vietnam war, and M iddle East confrontations are set out with an economy of words that does not neglect the significance of the events. And the technological ch anges have never ceased: battle ships gave way to aircrafr carriers and submarines, missiles replaced huge guns, and nuclear power took over from oil. Clearly the Concise H istory is essential reading for anyone with n o knowledge of how and why the US fleet cam e to replace the Royal Navy to rule the seas. It is also worth reading fo r anyone w ith a deeper knowled ge and underst a nd in g of the grow th and development of the U S Navy, because it allows the reader to pull together the essentials of his or her knowledge of a strategic American institutio n. The book is good reading and is recommended. D R. D AVID 0 . W HITTEN Auburn, Alabama SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016
IN HOSTILE WATERS a novel by William H . White award-winning author of The 1812 Trilogy. Join Lt. William Henry Allen on his quest to cake the war to British home waters, where he and the crew of USS Argus will wreak havoc on the British merchant fl eet before coming head-to-head with the Royal Navy brig sent to hum them down.
In Hostile ~ters is available in paperback or on Ki ndle th ro ugh Amazo n. com. Fo r more on W illiam H . White and his books, visit: www.seafiction.net.
The voyage will be long BRING 4. GOOD BOOE
SURVIVING THE ESSEX The Afterlife of America's Most Storied Shipwreck
David 0 . Dowling
p aperback, 240 pp., $24.95
THE SEA MARK
ICE SHIP
Captain John Smith 's Voyage to New England Russell M . L awson
The Epic Voyages of the Polar Adven turer Fram Charl es W. Johnson
h ardcover; 252 pp., $29.95
hardcover; 336pp., $35. 00
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