Publisher's Weekly Review
Daughan brings a long academic career and solid command of his sources to this provocative history of the origins of the U.S. Navy. Conventional wisdom has the navy beginning in the 1790s. Daughan instead traces its roots to the Revolution. The fleet established by the Continental Congress had a relatively undistinguished career, but Daughan demonstrates that the Americans gained technical experience, produced talented officers, trained seamen and developed a basic understanding of how a navy should be employed. The question then was whether a navy would concentrate too much authority in the central government and risk embroiling the new country in foreign quarrels. By contrast, a coastal defense force of small ships threatened nobody, foreign or domestic. Daughan traces the debate through four administrations, smoothly integrating political with external influences like the Quasi-War with France (1798-1800) and the campaign against the Barbary pirates. Not until the War of 1812, when the navy proved critical, did a national consensus emerge that preparing for war was the best way of avoiding one--a lesson that remains worth remembering. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Ambitious, painstakingly detailed account of how the fledgling American fleet grew into a permanent navy. Despite calls by George Washington and John Adams to raise a naval power, there was no muscular attempt to organize patriot sea militias at the outbreak of the Revolution, largely because the Royal Navy appeared so dominant. The rebels didn't realize, writes Daughan, former director of the Air Force Academy's MA program in international affairs, that their strength lay in their humble whaleboats. This is evident in the author's blow-by-blow re-creation of such early sea skirmishes as the overtaking of the British Margaretta by rebels off the coast of Machias, Maine, on May 24, 1775, a battle that James Fenimore Cooper later called "the Lexington of the sea." The Continental Congress could not adequately direct naval strategy, while the heroic efforts of patriot seamen like John Paul Jones, John Barry, Lambert Wickes and Nicholas Biddle were squandered on insignificant missions. The French alliance helped turn the tide, but what remained of the Continental Navy played little part in the momentous victories, and the new republic was too broke to fund a navy. Goaded by high-seas piracy and impressments and seizure by the English, Congress eventually passed the Naval Act of 1794, which authorized the construction of a half-dozen frigates--"a pathetically small force," notes Daughan. President Adams was determined to bolster defense measures, but his successor was unwilling to expend public funds for defense; Jefferson preferred to use the power of commerce as a foreign-relations weapon. The issues of impressments and trade grew increasingly contentious between America and Britain, culminating in the declaration of war by President Madison in 1812. The author demonstrates how American privateers effected some surprising victories, contributing to the growing consensus that the navy was indeed critical to the nation's defense. Not just a rigorous, steady-going chronological history, but also a cogent analysis of the genesis of a defense strategy. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Improvised at the outset of the Revolution and neglected between 1783 and 1794, America's navy achieved respectability in the Barbary War, fame in the War of 1812. Concurrently, it was the object of a bitter political feud between the Federalists, who held that the central government needed to afford a navy, and the Democrats, who feared what having a navy and other established military forces might lead that government to do. Besides the battles and the politics, Daughan clearly recounts the evolution of American warship design (or acquisition) during the period covered and sketches a great many significant figures, including not only such household names as John Paul Jones and Stephen Decatur but also such equally capable officers as Nicholas Biddle and Richard Somers, killed in action before they could fulfill their promise, and such also-rans as Esek Hopkins, first commander of an American fleet, and Richard Dale. This stout tome will probably stand for some time as the best single-volume history of the roots of the U.S. Navy.--Green, Roland Copyright 2008 Booklist
Choice Review
The date for the formation of the US Navy remains a controversial issue, especially for a nation that boasts the strongest seagoing force in the world. Some argue that the Navy originated when George Washington signed the Naval Act of 1794, calling for the construction and manning of six ships, a decision that eventually produced the frigates Constitution and Constellation. Historian Daughan insists that the Navy's foundation can be traced to the first shots of the American Revolution in 1775, and to the Continental Navy that developed soon thereafter. Placing the story of the Navy's formative years into 15 broadly developed chapters, Daughan's chronicle of the republic's early history until 1815 describes the colorful exploits of naval heroes such as Edward Preble, Stephen Decatur, Oliver Hazard Perry, and Thomas McDonough. But the author does little to explain why a geographically isolated nation desired or needed a deepwater sailing force. Perhaps focusing on this question could potentially explain the country's early development as well as the Navy's post-War of 1812 evolution into an important line of defense and instrument of US foreign policy. Summing Up: Recommended. General and undergraduate libraries. G. A. Smith Texas Christian University
