A Layman's Guide to Naval Strategy
By PUINCETON UNIV. PRESS, $2.50
CIVILIAN “experts” have been offering their guidance to the armed forces ever since the outbreak of the war. The result has been a continual alternation of extravagant praise or blame, with the general public responding rather in the manner of a well-trained cheering section for the catchwords of the moment.
This book stands out almost in a class by itself, in that the author is able to brush away the catchwords and to make clear the elements of fact underlying the conduct of the present war at sea. He has a clear and practical concept of sea power under conditions of the present day, and sea power is essentially a practical rather than an abstruse thing. He offers no short cut to victory, and his book is free of the usual sweeping, contemptuous criticism of the British and American high commands. Instead, he makes clear the complexity of the problems they have had to face; and he is even able to set forth in non-technical language the limitations and potentialities of the highly technical modern instruments of war. His text is strikingly free from tactical jargon.
There could be a clearer arrangement of the points, but as it stands this is the best book on the war brought forth on this side of the Atlantic.
T. H. T.
J. B. JAMES BOYD
T. B. THOMAS BARBOUR
R. M. G. ROBERT M. GAY
W. S. WALLACE STEGNER
T. H. T. T. H. THOMAS
S. T. SIGNE TOKSVIG
G. F. W. GEORGE F. WHICHER