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BOOK REVIEWS John B. Hattendorf (ed.). Doing Naval History: omics seem respectable enough. But what other Essays Toward Improvement. Newport, RI: 'frills'? Sailoring as a trade is one thing. Such Naval War College Press, 1995. ix + 160 pp., luminaries as Phil Crowl and Ted Ropp operated table, figure. US $8 (+ $2.50 p+h), paper; ISBN out of a very wide base of erudition. Should 1-884733-06-9. such initiatives be successfully crowded by specialists? This book shows John Hattendorf at his best, Imbedded in these pieces seem to be two or shepherding a group of naval historians into three general problems. The first is, what is the their own snug harbour and encouraging them to need to induce more social and political history recognize their surroundings. Using the facilities into the study of naval war? The second is, the of Newport, widening this potential by associ• perceived requirement of a real knowledge of ation with Yale, and bringing in an international nautical technology, especially in the twentieth and cross-disciplinary team, he has done some century. Of course, Ehrman on William III, real 'naval' gazing. There was a need for it. Rodger on the 'Wooden Walls,' and Daniel Robert Wood, Hattendorf, James Goldrick Baugh on forest supply understood this for the (to a degree), and Nicholas Rodger seem to wooden age. But Jon Sumida in his eloquent ad• agree that their craft is closely linked to national vocacy of the Pollens of this world seems to be or naval history. They do not write it, or about claiming a special case for modern technology. it, as if the purpose was to produce a strategic It may be that this is a matter of degree. This brief to win the next war. This is helpful since could be argued, but there is not much of a case naval officers often seem to labour under for deliberate neglect. Surely we must master delusions that infect naval history. The first is our fields in ways that appear necessary. The that they are the only ones who appreciate naval second part of this argument seems to be that as history; another is that naval researchers ought the twentieth century advances, the chances of to be dedicated to problem-solving for the an historical appreciation of technology recedes. admirals of the future. It is important that these But perhaps the complicated patterns that tech• slants be faced, as Robert Wood does squarely, nology has created may be resolved by more making it clear (since defence departments and technology, or at least understood through it. If other government agencies generally write our the technology is kept secret (by defence depart• pay cheques) that our writing is effected. Few ments), that is a statecraft problem and nothing writers, service or civilian, are inclined to resist to do with historians. Indeed, it says more about the omnipresence of the corrupting taint of the tendency of some historians to swim with money. the political and social environment than any• This book, as I say, does not strongly thing about the nature and uses of history. address this question of historical propriety. Sumida should relax. He is safely aboard the Instead, the question of attachment to 'general' naval history ship and not likely to be forced to history comes up. There seems to be agreement walk the plank. But he may not be able to take that naval historians should know other things over the ship completely. than naval lore. How far that should go is hard There is not space for an even-handed to assess. Certainly, as Hattendorf suggests, such treatment of the various chapters. But a few 'cognate' work as political science and econ• judgments must be hazarded. Goldrick deserves 45 46 The Northern Mariner full credit for seeing the significance of the having been in the form of an essay in Ubi Falklands in the strategic balance sheet of World Sumus? The State of Naval and Maritime His• War I, despite his marked naval officer view• tory (Naval War College Press, 1994), the point. In reference to Thompson's paper, Clem• second in the form of an article in La Revue enceau ' s reference to Wilson's "Fourteen Points" maritime (March 1995). By any standard, this is is apropos, viz. "God Almighty has only Ten." pretty good for a piece which comprises less Paul Kennedy's party piece is different, pro• than thirty pages of text, supplemented by over vocative and titillating, as he no doubt intended. twenty pages of single spaced source references. Robert Wood is shrewd and thoughtful. Nicholas The point is that this is more of an essay Rodger seems to have re-written the job-descrip• than a book, a bibliographical essay. Its sole tion of his history of the Royal Navy, although purpose is to guide readers to the secondary his studied debunking of invasion-conscious literature on naval and maritime history from the strategies would have amused Michael Lewis. ancient world to that of the twentieth century. But Paul Halperin's paper dealing with Austrian, Reasonably, it does not claim to be exhaustive. French, and Italian navies is a model essay, Its focus is on the historical research of French providing as it does information on navies less scholars since the late nineteenth century, and studied in the Anglo-Saxon world together with principally on France's own sea-related experi• extensive information concerning the where• ence. It offers no direct assistance on the subject abouts of sources to do this. He also raises the of that country's archives, but rather concen• question of the "gift of tongues," showing the trates on the books and unpublished dissertations hard choices that must be made by researchers which have been completed in France over the working in southern European countries of the past two or three decades. Therein lies its Mediterranean littoral. Furthermore, hismessage, ambition, and its utility. like Corbett's on the Russo-Japanese War, is The structure of the essay is straightfor• that less successful actions may tell us more ward, as befits a piece designed to provide a about naval warfare than the story of naval service. The first half addresses naval history routs. Halperin is the most impressive naval chronologically, from ancient to modern, that is historian writing today, and his mastery of his to say various landmark studies of fleets and craft shows. fighting sailors. The second half addresses It is good for naval writers to do some maritime history thematically — naval archaeol• 'navel-gazing' from time to time. Hattendorf has ogy, seafaring and the economy, the social assembled some provocative essays. Not for the history of seafarers and port dwellers, the impact first time we are very much indebted to him for of both on overseas development. But naval or opening the boundaries of our craft in a helpful maritime, period or theme, what provides the way, and through such authoritative contributors. continuity is the French experience as inter• This is a stimulating book that should be com• preted — mainly — by French historians. pulsory reading by naval writers. This emphasis is not fortuitous, for if there is a single over-arching idea it is to galvanize Donald M. Schurman French scholars into action. For too long, ac• Victoria, British Columbia cording to the author, naval history — like military history — fell into disrepute, a victim of Hervé Coutau-Bégarie. L'Histoire maritime en the Annales and the tyranny of social history. France. Paris: Institut stratégie comparée, 1995 Coincidentally, American and British scholars — [École pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sciences supported by better funded historical establish• historiques et philologiques, Sorbonne - Escalier ments — assumed a greater proportion of the E, 45-47, rue des Écoles, 75005, Paris]. 75 pp., burden for naval and maritime history, even that index. 75 FFr, paper; ISBN 2-7178-2893-1. of France! Between them, the annalistes by intent, and the anglo-saxons by inadvertence, This is a curious little volume, at once both managed to constrain and overshadow the slight and substantial. It is curious because this contribution of French scholars to France's is its third manifestation in this life — the first seafaring history. Only in the past two decades Book Reviews Al has there been an appreciable renaissance in that this paper is published in Swedish (the other France itself, one to which Coutau-Bégarie has two papers are in English), since it would made many contributions. Part complaint, part undoubtedly be of interest to readers outside remonstrance, part inspiration, this essay serves Scandinavia. Toivanen gives an account of the as a useful field guide to the current state of myth of the Finn who is able to perform witch• naval-maritime scholarship in France. As such, craft and shows how the legend can be traced its latest reincarnation is to be welcomed. back through the Middle Ages and beyond through (among others) Tacitus and Ptolemaios Robert J. Young all the way to Homer. Toivanen then shows how Winnipeg, Manitoba the myth lives on in literature, citing the works of Lord Byron, Joseph Conrad, Richard Henry Anne Ala-Pôllanen (éd.). De nordiska sjofarts- Dana, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others. The author museernas 14:e samarbetsmote i Finland. finally takes us into the days of the Cold War Helsinki: Maritime Museum of Finland, 1995. where the mythical Finn appears in spy stories, 49 pp., photographs, maps, illustrations, paper; pictured as a suspect agent or smuggler of ISBN 951-9075-83-6. weapons. The second of the two collections reviewed RiitaBlomgren and Jukka Eenilà (eds.). Nautica here, Nautica Fennica, is a yearbook for the Fennica: The Maritime Museum of Finland Finnish Maritime Museum and the Association Annual Report 1994.