Customer Reviews

Civil War Ironclads: The U.S. Navy and Industrial Mobilization (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology)

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I have mixed views on this book and first discuss the good. The information that is provided in the book is generally new and not covered in other sources. It deals primarily with the construction of the Monitor, Passaic class ironclads, Canonicus (called Tippecanoe class in the book) class ironclads, and Casco class ironclads. Provided is information on the how the designs were created, contracts allocated, project management, cost overuns, design changes, postponements, and resulting lawsuits. Also provided is the information on the interactions and activities of the main people involved in the process such as Ericsson, Welles, Stilmer, Fox, etc. and the contractors that built the ships. The book does not cover operational details of the ships.

Now the bad. Much of the book discusses the many postponements and cost overuns that resulted due to the design changes to the Canonicus and Casco class monitors. However, the actual problems and fixes are barely mentioned. A bit more technical information should have been provided because it would assisted the reader in understanding the reasons for the changes and the time required to make them. A more major problem is that the book provides just brief mention of the design and constuction of all the other non-monitor types, which constituted about half of the ironclads in the U.S. Navy. Missing is all but the briefest mention of the New Ironsides, Keokuk, Galena, Roanoke, two-gun monitors, and the various assortment of non-monitor river ironclads.

The book is titled "Civil War Ironclads." A much smaller subtitle that is on the cover but not bookend is "The U.S. Navy and Industrial Mobiliation." As discussed above, the focus of the book is more narrow than this. The title should have been: "Civil War Monitors"

Concise and to the point but not enough illustrations
of the ships a good referance work.

I truly enjoyed this book. Mainly because the history of technology and industrialization is one of my hobbies. It should probably be called Civil War Monitors.
This is not an operational history. Do not be fooled. Instead it is a concise 200pg history of how the US Navy and the ship building industry mobilized for building ironclad monitors. Especially interesting for its' discussions of inflation, labor rates, and how striving for perfection ruined the building program.

A must read for program managers, industrial engineers, acquisition professionals, and anyone interested in the history of industrial mobilization.