"For the Purposes of Defense": The Politics of the Jeffersonian Gunboat Program
The University of Delaware Press: Newark, 1995. Very Good / Very Good. Item #26266
ISBN: 0874135591
Newark: The University of Delaware Press, 1995. First Edition. Octavo xiii, 185pp. Illustrated dust jacket; black cloth boards with gilt lettering to spine. Jacket lightly rubbed along edges and spine ends, with no chips, tears, or marks. Boards are sturdy and square. Binding is sound and pages unmarked.
An Autumn 1997 issue of Naval War College Review notes "This book, Gene Smith's Auburn University doctoral thesis, is a valuable contribution to the literature on American naval policy in the early republic. Examining the politics and the ideology underlying the commissioning of small, shallow-draft vessels under President Thomas Jefferson, Smith is able to correct much of the misunderstanding about Jefferson's intentions that late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century naval officers, as well as later historians, perpetuated by concentrating on the development of a large battle fleet. As Smith shows, the gunboats were only a small part of Jefferson's fundamental policy and strategy, a larger concept that was never fully implemented. Jefferson undertook the gunboat plan at a time of financial difficulties and as part of his idea for an integrated defense policy that included larger blue-water vessels, coastal and harbor fortifications, and a nationwide militia. Congress, however, authorized only the gunboats. Since it was obviously impossible to carry out Jefferson's full concept for national defense, naval historians have not until now fully understood the strategic and political dilemma. Instead, they have incorrectly tended to ridicule the gunboats as part of an anti-navy policy. Smith has gone far to correct this major misunderstanding in American naval history."
Well-represented institutionally but scarce in retail.
Price: $100.00