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BOOK REVIEWS Jeffrey G. Barlow. From Hot War to War origins lay in a sound appreciation of Cold: The U.S. Navy and National American requirements and capabilities. Security Affairs, 1945-1955. Palo Alto, Barlow, the author of an earlier CA: Stanford University Press, study of the Navy’s controversial struggle in www.sup.org, 2009. x+728 pp., notes, 1949 against an Air Force-dominated bibliography, index. US $65.00, cloth; strategic doctrine, was clearly compelled to ISBN-13: 978-0-80475-666-2. make difficult decisions to realize what could have been a much more expansive In a thickly researched narrative of the early study. The advent of the atomic age and national security state, Jeffrey Barlow perceived Soviet threat cast into doubt undertakes to explore the role played by the prospects for resuming a peacetime posture US Navy in strategic debates and the bitter after 1945, and Barlow is at his best in unification crisis of the immediate post- depicting the resulting scramble among the Second World War period, when defence services to conflate their operational pundits, former wartime joint commanders, capabilities and platforms with the national and policy-makers hoped to dissolve the interest. But one would have liked more disparate services into a single amalgam. light shed on the Navy’s stake in some key The title of the book misleads somewhat, as issues, especially Truman’s dismissal of Barlow begins his account in March 1942 MacArthur, which looms large over any with President Roosevelt’s decision to narrative of relations between the executive consolidate in one person the role of Chief and the military in this period. A deeper of Naval Operations and Fleet Commander. assessment, however speculative, of the The brilliant, ardently service-partisan Navy’s acquiescence in that muscular officer who filled that enormous profile, initiative would likewise have been Admiral Ernest King, worked to expand the welcome, as would a more detailed role of the service chief to subsume appreciation of the Navy’s response to virtually the entire Navy Department, while NSC-68 or the mission of then-retired skillfully leveraging the central importance General George Marshall to China. of the Navy in the Second World War for The book should prove especially the internecine bureaucratic struggle that he interesting to contemporary historians of shrewdly saw coming. The result was a strategy, who will find engrossing the service well-positioned to weather the initial Navy’s struggle to define its role in the setbacks of an Air Force offensive to claim uncertain new environment of the Cold War the country’s entire strategic future and to and the manner whereby senior officers rebound with a strong, multi-faceted, and negotiated a rapidly shifting set of sensible strategy comprising both bureaucratic challenges. Barlow, the son conventional and nuclear means. However and grandson of naval officers, chooses to conflicted on a range of issues the highlight, perhaps overly generously, the contemporary US Navy may seem, its Cold unusually capable and intelligent cadre of The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord, XX No. 2 (April 2010), 209-238 210 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord senior leaders who guided the Navy through (re)construction, many of us would like to this era, especially the five CNOs of this know what life was like back then, but period, whose varied backgrounds and actually living in that era would mean most generalist orientations are thought to have of us would be dead by now, or badly prepared them for the unique rigours of nurtured and suffering several diseases! So strategic command. More cynically, Barlow how far should the “authentic experience” points out that the bitter unification battles go? These replica ships create an in Congress and against the other services atmosphere and arouse a lot of interest in impressed upon them the need for the Navy our forebears and how they managed life at to “sell its mission competence to the larger sea and that is exactly the point of those. worlds of Congress and general public in The title of the present book is a bit order to maintain support in an arena where misleading if one is actually looking for the the other military services, particularly the magnificent 1986 book under the same title, U.S. Air Force, were effectively selling the edited by Crumlin-Pedersen & Vinner. In futurist orientation of their combatant the 2009 book, thirteen authors are brought forces.”(p.405) While striking in retrospect, together to tell about their experiences with the contemporary observer of military constructing and sailing wooden ship affairs cannot but lament the growth of replicas. Practical knowledge, true, service identities seemingly based as much sometimes anecdotal only, gives the readers on zero-sum marketing as on utility. some more feeling about how it could have been like to sail a Greek Trireme or a Marcus Jones Bezaisen, a Japanese coastal sailing trader. Annapolis, MD In some cases ships were constructed using one “specific” original ship as source, in Jenny Bennett (ed.). Sailing into the Past: other cases, a ship was built “representing” Replica Ships and Seamanship. Barnsley, a certain ship type, using all different S. Yorkshire: Seaforth Publishing, sources the designers could lay their hands www.pen-and-sword.co.uk, 2009. 192 pp., on at that time. illustrations, bibliography, index. UK The book is very accessible, £25.00, cloth; ISBN 978-1-84832-013-0. background knowledge is not much anticipated. If you for example have never Replica ship building and sailing has never heard of the Skuldelev ships, those are been more popular than today. A brief properly introduced. After an introduction search will lead to dozens or even hundreds in four smaller articles the books is of such vessels across the globe, some of presented in two parts. The first part (four them primarily built for scientific purposes, papers) is dedicated to ancient and medieval but many of them for various other reasons ships, the second (six papers) to the Age of as well. Due to maritime restrictions, some Discovery 1600-1750. Obviously many can be sailed, others cannot. Generally, ships are left out, like for example the some were built ‘authentically’ and tested Kyrenia, but it is impossible to satisfy all. for scientific purposes, but in order to put to The vessels described in the book are sea, they needed modern adjustments; for similar to their historical / archaeological example, an engine. What we see today is a examples, but no one-to-one copies! ship which looks like the original (“visual Historical novelist Richard replica”), which might be constructed partly Woodman writes about the enchantment like the original (a “structural replica”) but many replica ships have and that is what the is not used like the original. But with any book is about: enthusing the readers for Book Reviews 211 replica sailing vessels. McGrail is setting and even in the list of contents (re)construction in perspective, explaining (“contributorts instead of “contributors”), the difference with for example showing the book might have been experimental archaeology in a very clear published in a hurry. The occasional picture manner. The spectrum of projects is large, could have been polished using Photoshop not even to speak about the spectrum of (for example the Lisa von Lübeck image on people and ambitions with such projects. pages 84-85) but those details may be The Sea Stallion of Glendalough, forgiven. built in Roskilde Denmark and described by The publisher and the editor have Rikke Johansen is a good example of a ship succeeded to turn the individual articles into serving several purposes. At Roskilde, over a complete and attractive narrative, a kind forty years of experience with Viking ship of nice series of examples, promoting replicas has culminated. Constructing the replica ship building and sailing. Most of Sea Stallion must have cost a fortune, just these articles read like adventure stories. like with the previous ships they built here. Present day sailors will be happy to read It was sailed to Dublin from Roskilde and this attractively designed book with a back in 2008-09 which raised a lot of multitude of pictures. For historians and attention, serving several purposes at once archaeologists, this is a nice introduction (research, tourism, nationalism, nostalgia to into the subject. A close reader will see not name just a few). Some see this ship and its only the good about ship replicas, but as travels as the finale, the crown on the work well the challenges this field faces. at Roskilde, either leading to a more slow phase in research and reconstruction (and a Roeland Paardekooper generation shift) or to an ending. It is Eindhoven, the Netherlands unclear what the future will bring, but it will surely involve building and sailing. John Blake. The Sea Chart: The Some examples of ship replicas are Illustrated History of Nautical Maps pretty old (like the 1987 trireme), but still and Navigational Charts. Annapolis, the authors and the graphic designer MD: Naval Institute Press, managed to make the articles live up to www.navalinstiute.org, 2009. 160 pp., modern standards. In many cases, the illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. authors were closely related to the ship US $39.95, paper; ISBN 978-1-59114- projects themselves, leading to relatively 782-4. optimistic stories with less detail to what could have been done better or to the Nautical charts provide a detailed context with other similar projects. But this representation of maritime regions and are book is about more than just the value of essential tools for the safe navigation of such ships to science alone.