James C. Rentfrow

This brisk little monograph examines the period between when the USN mobilized for potential war with Spain in 1873, and was found wanting, to 1898, where something that looked like a battle-worthy force could be deployed on operations at sea. Much of this story is about an evolution in mentality as the USN's officer corps went from having a fixation on independent command in the service of diplomacy or exploration to getting used to the concept of collective operations in standing units. Rentfrow enlivens this process by not skipping over the quirks and peccadilloes of the men who (sometimes more in theory than not) exercised command of the main force of the USN in the Atlantic.… (altro)