May

5

For the O’Brian fans

May 5, 2024 |

Six Frigates, by Ian W. Toll (2006).

From the NYT review:

This first book by Toll, a former financial analyst and political speechwriter, is a fluent, intelligent history of American military policy from the early 1790s, when Congress commissioned six frigates to fight the Barbary pirates, through the War of 1812. But the book’s real value, and the pleasures it provides, lies in Toll’s grasp of the human dimension of his subject, often obscured in the dry tomes of naval historians. The battle depictions are worthy of Patrick O’Brian (whose fictional hero, Jack Aubrey, he cleverly uses to illustrate a scene in the December 1812 shootout between the American frigate Constitution and the British frigate Java).

Stefan Jovanovich adds:

Here is a discussion with Toll about his book on the last two years of WW 2 in the Pacific.

Other books by Ian W. Toll.


Comments

Name

Email

Website

Speak your mind

Archives

Resources & Links

Search