Sunday, June 25, 2017

US Naval Institute on Command


 9781612518008

Number of Pages: 192

Date Available: January 2015 In the U.S. Navy, “Wheel Books” were once found in the uniform pockets of every junior and many senior petty officers. Each small notebook was unique to the Sailor carrying it, but all had in common a collection of data and wisdom that the individual deemed useful in the effective execution of his or her duties. Often used as a substitute for experience among neophytes and as a portable library of reference information for more experienced personnel, those weathered pages contained everything from the time of the next tide, to leadership hints from a respected chief petty officer, to the color coding of the phone-and-distance line used in underway replenishments. In that same tradition, the new Naval Institute Wheel Books will provide supplemental information, pragmatic advice, and cogent analysis on topics important to all naval professionals. Drawn from the U.S. Naval Institute’s vast archives, the series will combine articles from the Institute’s flagship publication Proceedings, selections from the oral history collection and from Naval Institute Press books to create unique guides on a wide array of fundamental professional subjects. Command is the pinnacle of leadership in a military organization. Navy regulations define both the authority and the responsibility of command as “absolute.” This Naval Institute Wheel Book provides practical guidance and advice that actual and would-be commanders can use to carry out that absolute authority. Included in this carefully selected collection is the experience of those who have commanded as well as the expectations of those who are commanded. Aspirants as well as practitioners will do well to exploit this selected survey of what Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz described as the “one purpose” for entering the Navy. Thomas J. Cutler has been serving the U.S. Navy in various capacities for nearly fifty years. The author of many articles and books, including several editions of The Bluejacket’s Manual and A Sailor’s History of the U.S. Navy, he is currently the director of professional publishing at the Naval Institute Press and Fleet Professor of Strategy and Policy with the Naval War College. He has received the William P. Clements Award for Excellence in Education as military teacher of the year at the U.S. Naval Academy, the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Naval Literature, the U.S. Maritime Literature Award, and the Naval Institute Press Author of the Year Award.

James Madison Hood Lincoln’s Consul to the Court of Siam




James Madison Hood
Lincoln’s Consul to the Court of Siam

George C. Kingston


Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-7194-2
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-4766-0126-7
14 photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index
244pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2013



Captain James Madison Hood was the real U.S. Consul in the novel Anna and the King of Siam, but before his arrival in Bangkok, he was also a merchant ship captain, builder of clipper ships, legislator in both Massachusetts and Illinois, industrialist, and land speculator. He was present at the birth of the Republican Party. As U.S. Consul, he presided over the trial of Dr. Dan Beach Bradley for libel of the French Consul, Gabriel Aubaret, a case which influenced the course of Southeast Asian history and got Anna Leonowens in trouble with King Mongkut. Captain Hood lived large and was not above a little extralegal maneuvering to support his lifestyle. His life is a tour through the politics, economics and deal making of the mid–19th century.


Two Roads to War




Binding:Hardback
Published:June 15, 2012

Noted aviation historian Robin Higham has written this comparative study of the evolution of the French and British air arms from 1918 to 1940 to determine why the Armée de l’Air was defeated in June 1940 but the Royal Air Force was able to win the battle over Britain in September. After analyzing the structure, men, and matériel of the air arms, and the government and economic infrastructure of both countries, he concludes that the French force was dominated by the Armée de Terre, had no suitably powerful aero engines, and suffered from the chaos of French politics. In contrast, the independent RAF evolved into a sophisticated, scientifically based force, supported by consistent government practices. Higham’s thorough examination,