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Quick and Dirty History

Customer Rating:
Alpha Bravo Delta's Guide to the US Navy is a quick and dirty history. Most helpful are the little gray boxes that offer us uninitiated guidance on basic naval language such as the difference between a destroyer and a cruiser or a schooner and a frigate. The book has great anecdotes, such as the origin of the phrase "damn the torpedoes" (uttered by Farragut when his crew delayed moving the vessel because of torpedoes), a thorough history of the growth of the US Navy from a backwater fleet committed to wooden vessels long past their time to the world's premiere navy that pioneered nuclear propulsion, and great comparative discussions of the US Navy compared to many other great powers during the 1900s.

One place the book does get a little light is on America's righteousness. Although the book admits a little moral ambiguity when it comes to the explosion of the USS Maine, which triggered the Spanish-American War, it glosses over what I thought was acknowledged US involvement in the revolution in Panama that led to US control of the Canal. The book is also light on comparisons between the US and Russian navies during the Cold War.

But to get a crash course in naval history, pick up this book for a few hours and you will be satisfied.