The Essex Aircraft Carriers [Hardcover]

Andrew Faltum (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Nautical & Aviation Pub Co of Amer; First edition (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1877853267
• ISBN-13: 978-1877853265
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,775,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine book, but the description is a bit misleading, May 4, 2004

By 

M. Flegal (CT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essex Aircraft Carriers (Hardcover)

Let me start off by saying that this is indeed a fine book. However, it's not really a technical history of the Essex class carriers. Sure, it spends a chapter or two describing the design genesis for the ship but that is not the bulk of the book. The bulk of the book is a synopsis of every major and most minor actions that involved Essex-class fleet carriers from WW2 to Vietnam. As such, much of the book is only somewhat related to the Essex carriers and describes the actions that they served in. This is not a criticism, as this stuff is very well done, but rather an observation. While there are photos, there aren't a lot of them and the drawings are few and somewhat simplified. If you're looking for model reference, this isn't the book for you.

My one real criticism of the book is that it is too short. There are small sections or even paragraphs that dropped tantalizing tidbits of information that I would have loved to see covered at length. There's a paragraph that describes the shakedown process of the carriers in a sheltered and mined deep water bay. This is a subject that there is almost no reference on and I would have loved to see more on it. There are several sections like that where I grow really interested and then it's over in a few lines.

All that said, if you want a book that covers all of the facets of the Essex class, from development to service, to modifications, to a list of all of the carriers built; this is your book.