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Yale UNIVERSITY PRESS A lavishly illustrated history of the rise of American naval power during World War II
“When he is at his best, as he often is in these pages, Kennedy can be dazzling.” —Ian W. Toll, New York Times
A riveting exploration of the brilliant, combative, and controversial “Father of the Nuclear Navy”
“Wortman opens a window into the life of an intellectual titan disdainful of nearly everything except scientific honesty, his adopted nation, and the power of the atom.” —Jonathan W. Jordan, Wall Street Journal
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The Union Blockade in the American Civil War: A Reassessment by Michael Brem Bonner and Peter McCord (University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 2021, 217pp, appen, notes, biblio, index, isbn 978-1-62190-670-4; $45hc) Every year, publishers produce scores of new books on Civil War history, yet few examine the purely naval aspects of the conflict. It has been decades since a wideranging study appeared on the blockade that scrutinizes the Union’s efforts to curtail Southern trade and to determine its overall validity and effectiveness. The authors of The Union Blockade in the American Civil War: A Reassessment have rectified this shortcoming. There are several themes within the book. The authors examine how the blockade influenced the mindset of the war’s participants, and how it met the legal requirements and evolved into a diplomatic experiment. They also assess the Confederates’ reliance on European imports to sustain the war effort, and, importantly, they statistically analyze the blockade’s effectiveness. Much of the book’s narrative brings readers up to speed on the blockade and the previous scholarship on the subject. The authors discuss the nuances of the effort and look at the historiography of the topic. They relate that the purpose of their work was not to “establish a new paradigm” or revise historical analysis, but to spark additional questions. They deliberate on the blockade as a critical component of Union strategy and not just as a sideshow, asking probing questions and adding their analysis. The authors, Michael Brem Bonner, an assistant professor of history at the University of South Carolina at Lancaster, and Peter McCord, who teaches history at the State University of New York in Fredonia, discuss the US Navy’s establishment of the blockade. They consider the contributions of Gideon Welles, as well as pointing out the geographical complications, arguing that the Union’s blockade was a huge undertaking that no country had ever attempted on this scale before. They also look
at advances in maritime technology and how they made maintaining the blockade more difficult. The authors spend some time on diplomacy, and discuss how the Lincoln administration had to tread carefully, both to set up the blockade, and then to maintain it. The Union’s blockading efforts had to satisfy the criteria that most of the European nations agreed upon, according to international law. They provide an overview of blockade practices and the legal developments that occurred forty years before the Civil War, pointing out that the British, in particular, held the United States to high standards, which also happened to uphold British naval interests. Rulings from American prize courts actually broadened the theory of blockade practice. Bonner and McCord also survey the early diplomatic developments that set the relationship between the British, the Confederacy, and the United States. Part of this connection revolves around “King Cotton Diplomacy,” and its failure. They consider the probable consequences had the Southern states not implemented this measure. The authors’ greatest contribution is their statistical analysis of the economics of the blockade and its effectiveness. They point out that blockade running created a “short-lived boom economy,” with a wide assortment of international characters looking to get rich, which attracted the needed capital. They likewise assert that the blockade was a psychological weapon, inflicting abnormal economic conditions upon the South. Bonner and McCord maintain that the mere existence of the blockade “demoralized” the Confederacy because it was a constant reminder to those on the home front that there was a war ongoing, yet they submit that the effect is impossible to quantify. The authors further look at the deterrent effect of the blockade and claim that shortages impacted all industries, particularly railroads, and they also examine how it caused inflation. Their findings relate that the Union navy’s ability to stop steamSEA HISTORY 180, AUTUMN 2022