If By Sea: The Forging of the American Navy-from the Revolution to the War of 1812 - Softcover

Daughan, George C

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465025145 ISBN 13: 9780465025145

Publisher: Basic Books, 2011

Synopsis

Most historians trace the origins of the Continental Navy to George Washington's official inauguration of the Federal Navy in 1793, but the story actually begins years earlier: in 1775, at the advent of the American Revolution. In If By Sea, historian George C. Daughan uses decades of primary research to brilliantly trace the navy's little-recognized origins, showing that the battles of Lexington and Concord—as well as many subsequent battles, including Bunker Hill, New York, and Philadelphia—cannot be fully understood without taking the role of naval power into account.

About this title

About the Author:

George C. Daughan holds a Ph.D. in American History and Government from Harvard University and is a member of the American Historical Association, the National Maritime Historical Society, the North American Society for Oceanic History, and the Maine Historical Society. He resides in Portland, Maine.

From Publishers Weekly:

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)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0465025145
• ISBN 13: 9780465025145
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 569