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In the 1890s, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt led a campaign to modernize the navy. Paramount in Roosevelt's vision was the creation of a fleet of modern, steel-hulled warships armed with the most powerful weapons available. The future president and his intellectual soul mate, Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, firmly believed that America's emerging global expansion would only reach its full potential through sea. power. The swift and overwhelming US victor in the Spanish-American War of 1898 vindicated the views of Theodore Roosevelt and Captain Mahan, and marked the debut on the world stage of the modern US Navy. Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. Navy and the Spanish American War considers the impact Roosevelt had on the US navy in general and how his reforms affected the course and outcome of the Spanish-American war in particular. The nine contributors to this volume include leading historians, and prominent naval officers from the US and Spain. With essays ranging from the Roosevelt family's naval heritage to the impact of the Spanish-American War on enlisted forces in the navy, this work is a major contribution to our understanding of Theodore Roosevelt and 'his' navy.
Based on a pocket diary from the Spanish-American War, this tough-as-nails 1899 memoir abounds in patriotic valor and launched the future President into the American consciousness.
A century after the Cuban war for independence was fought, Louis Pérez examines the meaning of the war of 1898 as represented in one hundred years of American historical writing. Offering both a critique of the conventional historiography and an alternate
From a broad, historical perspective, the dreadnought represents an archetype, and its history a kind of moral tale. Its awesome size, its formidable presence, and its immense power have gained it tremendous respect, loyalty, and, as Robert O'Connell shows in this myth-shattering book, unwarranted longevity as well. With provocative insight and wit he offers us an irreverent history of the modern battleship and its place in American history, from the sinking of the coal-fueled Maine in 1898 to the deployment of the cruise missile-armed Missouri in the Persian Gulf War of 1991. The modern navies were the first of the armed services faced with fundamental and abrupt technological change. The wooden sailing ships that had fought sea battles for nearly two centuries were, in only a few years, rendered obsolete by a veritable tidal wave of innovation. With the deployment of the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought in 1903, the new technology reached its full fruition: the gigantic sleek, steel-clad, many-gunned vessel that would rule the seas (or at least the minds of Naval commanders) for years to come. O'Connell shows how other nations raced to emulate this new prototype (much in the fashion of the nuclear arms race of later decades), usually at the expense of much more effective forms of naval force. He also demonstrates compellingly the dashed expectations for the battleship occasioned by the outbreak of war in 1914. While many anticipated a massive twentieth-century Trafalgar, in actuality dreadnoughts everywhere avoided battle, and when they did fight, the results were most often inconclusive or even irrelevant. With the Battle of Jutland in 1916--the only real naval showdown of the war--the ineffectiveness of the battleship as the pre-eminent weapon of war was made abundantly clear: the German navy scored on only 120 hits out of 3,597 heavy shells fired while the British had an even more dismal showing--100 out of 4,598, or a hit ratio of 2.17%. Yet, in spite of this display of impotence, the world's great naval yards continued to turn out the huge vessels. O'Connell observes that even after the heart of the American fleet was sunk by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, the almost superstitious faith in the battleship insured its survival. While they have never played a decisive role in the outcome of any modern war, they have continued to be resurrected and refurbished--even equipped with cruise missles--right up to the present day. Sacred Vessels is more than the unmasking of a false idol of naval history. It is a cautionary tale about the often unacknowledged influence of human faith, culture, and tradition on the exceedingly important, costly, and suppossedly rational process of national defense. Not only is it a gripping tale well-told, it is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand the dynamics involved in the arming of nations.
A compelling account of the consequences of American colonialism in the Philippines through critical and visual art essays.
On February 15, 1898, the American ship USS Maine mysteriously exploded in the Havana Harbor. News of the blast quickly reached U.S. shores, where it was met by some not with alarm but great enthusiasm. A powerful group of war lovers agitated that the United States exert its muscle across the seas. Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge were influential politicians dismayed by the "closing" of the Western frontier. William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal falsely heralded that Spain's "secret infernal machine" had destroyed the battleship as Hearst himself saw great potential in whipping Americans into a frenzy. The Maine would provide the excuse they'd been waiting for. On the other side were Roosevelt's former teacher, philosopher William James, and his friend and political ally, Thomas Reed, the powerful Speaker of the House. Both foresaw a disaster. At stake was not only sending troops to Cuba and the Philippines, Spain's sprawling colony on the other side of the world-but the friendships between these men. Now, bestselling historian Evan Thomas brings us the full story of this monumental turning point in American history. Epic in scope and revelatory in detail, The War Lovers takes us from Boston mansions to the halls of Congress to the beaches of Cuba and the jungles of the Philippines. It is landmark work with an unforgettable cast of characters-and provocative relevance to today.
The story of Tang and her gallant crew ranks with the most amazing of naval history. Whether rescuing Navy fliers off Truk or stalking enemy convoys off Japan, Tang carried the war to the enemy with unparalleled ferocity. Tang’s skipper on all five of her war patrols, Rear Admiral Richard H. O’Kane is acknowledged as the top submarine skipper of World War II. His personal decorations include three Navy Crosses and the Congressional Medal of Honor. He retired as a rear admiral from his command of the Submarine School, rounding out twenty years with the boats. He also wrote the classic Wahoo: The Patrols of America’s Most Famous WWII Submarine. Praise for Clear the Bridge! “There is no doubt that Tang was the best. . . . Most of the rest of us wondered what it was she had that the others didn’t. And here it is, in this extraordinary ‘tell it as it really happened’ book, written by the most daring, most professional submarine skipper of the war.”—Capt. Edward Beach, author of Run Silent, Run Deep “A classic of naval literature. . . . A stirring tribute, not only to [Richard O’Kane’s] gallant crew, but to all World War II submariners.”—Michael D. Hull, Military Magazine “Reading of [Tang’s] career and of the men aboard her is one of the great reading experiences of my life.”—Broox Sledge, The Book World