Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History

Symonds excellent book details six decisive sea battles and their formative roles in shaping American history. Six? The first chapter is actually a long prologue instead, and describes the Battle of the Capes, where the French fleet defeated the British off the coast of Virginia, preventing the British relief of Cornwallis's army and thus ending the Revolutionary War. But although that battle was pivotal to American history, Symonds has chosen the next five as exemplary of the US Navy's development, and its intertwined nature with the course of our country. Those battles are Lake Erie (War of 1812), Hampton Roads (Civil War), Manila Bay (Spanish-American), Midway (WWII), and Operation Praying Mantis (Gulf War). In each case, the close descriptions detail the logistical challenges, technology, and political considerations giving context to the fights. But what makes Symond's book remarkable is his demonstration that leadership and command decisions (along with more than a bit of luck) are consistently the critical factor in naval warfare. In a larger historical sense, Symonds is excellent at drawing out the lessons that each battle has for the development of American naval power and history. But that alone wouldn't make the book as good as it is -- Symonds has real skill in narrating a battle scene clearly, and an excellent eye for detail. And his concluding summary, where he lays out the possible roles of American naval military power in the near future, is shrewd, balanced, insightful; in other words good enough that you wish he'd developed it further. Hopefully that will be another book.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable book, well told and well researched. It covers five decisive American naval battles ranging from wooden ships to the Persian Gulf. The battle I knew the most about ahead of time was the Battle of Midway from World War II. Ironically the battle I knew the least about was Operation Praying Mantis in the Persian Gulf. Symonds does not just describe the battles he also describes the political and economic context that led to them, and what happened after them. This part was as interesting as the battles themselves. One "aha!" for me was seeing the similarities between the war with Spain and the war with Iraq. The author carefully avoids politicizing his points but has no hesitation being blunt about how American policy evolved after each battle. This is a very readable and well researched enjoyable read and among other goodies reviews where some of those famous slogans ("You may fire when ready, Gridley!") came from. Also that famous Civil War battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac (Virginia). I appreciate any author who knows how to make history enjoyable and relevant. And I liked the pictures too.

Craig Symond's "Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History" is an excellent book. He uses five key naval battles in American history - Lake Erie, Hampton Roads (the Monitor and the Virginia), Manila Bay, Midway, and Praying Mantis (1988 operations in the Persian Gulf against Iran) - as the vehicle to tell the story of the US Navy. However, this book is not a comprehensive history of the US Navy. He also uses these battles to trace American history from the frontier battles of a fledgling nation to its preeminence as the single world superpower Symond's descriptions of the five battles (actually, six, since he also describes the Battle of the Capes between the British and French during the American Revolution) are superb. He describes the action and also gives sufficient background into the overall military situation and the importance of each battle. Finally, he writes for the general reader, and is willing to write the explanatory sentence or paragraph to describe the distinctive world of naval combat. Symond weaves into each battle examples of the development of naval warfare. He compares the weapons, armaments, and propulsion with the previous battle, and describes how the experience of the sailors evolved from the deck-bound, unskilled combatants of the 18th century to the below-deck, unskilled combatants of the 19th century finally to the highly-skilled, technologically-adept sailors of the modern US Navy. Finally, Symond uses each battle to illustrate how America's role in the world evolved. During the Revolutionary War, the colonial forces fought a frontier battle on a lake against a small British force. Although the battle of Lake Erie was important in securing America's frontier, and it was more of an out-of-the-way skirmish against the most powerful Navy in the world. The Civil War battle between the ironclads showed that America was still struggling to found itself as a nation, but that America was a technologically-advanced country. Finally, America emerged as a world power between the end of the 19th century (the Spanish-American War) and the Second World War (Midway), and by the 1980s (Praying Mantis) the US was the preeminent world power. This ambitious book attempts to do many things, and Symond's narrative successfully accomplishes them all. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in American history or naval history.

I write this review from the somewhat unique perspective (at least compared to the previous reviewers) of being one of Professor Symonds' former students. I had the privilege of taking his course called "The Civil War to Modern America" while at the Naval Academy, and I will tell you, that it was because of Professor Symonds that I went from being a history student to a lifelong student of history. The style in which he writes puts the reader right in the moment. The quality of the research and the level of detail he provides all make for more than just a recap of battles long since past. In my mind, Prof. Symonds succeeds in bringing the past to life. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear I was standing right along side Perry at Lake Erie as well as the other key players at Hampton Roads, Manila Bay, Midway, and the Persian Gulf. Furthermore, not only does Prof. Symonds accomplish his goal by clearly demonstrating how the outcomes of these battles impacted our country's future, he also leaves us with a few things to think about as we continue to move forward into the 21st century. I think his epilogue is one that is extremely thought provoking with respect to this new role that the U.S. Navy has had to assume in the last several years. Regardless of your position, it certainly does raise a few questions; questions that can only be answered in the years to come. Karl Darden CDR USNR (Ret) U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1984

Err . . . I kind of wanted to write a review of this book until I read Mr. Holmes's below. I don't think I could ever top that, he says pretty much all you'd need to know about this book in a review. I guess I'll just try to add a few things, beyond the tactics and technology which are the focus of the book. In the section on the Battle of the Capes you get a very clear sense of how important timing is in the strategic sense for setting up Battles. The French were not the dominant maritime power in the American and Carribean waters, but the fates gave them an opportunity to mass a force that could defeat one half of a split British force, which then made them the dominant power. You can also see how, to a certain small degree, the Royal Navy was resting on it's laurels and how small inefficiencies in the way the British fought the Battle of the Capes cascaded into a decisive defeat. The Battle of Lake Eerie impressed me with the sheer determination and drive of both sides. The Americans and the British practically had to build small shipyards, then naval bases, then a few handful of ships themselves, and then throw them at each other with little more than a few scraped together supplies, pseudo-sailors with next to no training, and a prayer. The leaders on both sides were clearly walking the razor's edge, and it shows how much leadership can make the difference. The Battle of Manila Bay is very interesting, especially since it is so rarely mentioned in the literature despite the fact it announced America as a real power and gave us our only official colony. The most amazing thing about it was the extreme inaccuracy of the fire, an effect of technology outpacing tactics and training. Also interesting was the confusion that effervesced on the American side as a result of the mixture of being so far away from the Spanish fleet that accurate estimates of its strength could not be made, and miscommunications about how much ammunition remained. This caused a nearly comical worried withdrawal of the US fleet halfway through the battle before it realized it was winning resoundingly and rejoined the engagement. This by no means makes you think less of the prowess of the US Naval forces, but shows clearly just how thick the fog of war really can be. The section on Midway however was not terribly interesting considering how well documented Midway is and how much, in contrast to Manila Bay, it is mentioned in the wider literature. The original concept of the book was to discuss the campaign for the Solomon Islands instead, which included both novel carrier-to-carrier warfare (Battles of Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz), night-time big gun battles with radar (Savo, USS Washington & South Dakota vs. Hiei & Kirishima, etc.), and combined air-sea-land amphibious operations. I think that the book would have done better to stick to this concept, but perhaps that would have made it too long. Operation Praying Mantis is again fascinating for the same