Customer Reviews

Essex-Class Carriers (Warship Design Histories)

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If you are a model builder or are just interested in the technical details of the Essex class, this is the book for you. While there are a fair number of good, clear photos of the class from WW2 to their retirement, it is the plans that make this book so valuable. A few representative carriers are given full 3 page wide side and top views. For the rest, you get plans of each deck, plans of the different islands, plans of all of the armaments fitted and the radar installations, etc. For the modeler, this is the best resource out there. The Anatomy of the Ship book on the Intrepid is a close second but suffers in that it only represents one specific carrier. If you're interested in excellent and thorough plans of the wartimne Essex carriers, this is your book. Add the Intrepid book and you're thoroughly covered. if you're interested in the post-war modifications than this book will also serve your purposes.

Just a heads up for all you researchers out there...This book is a good book with several good layouts but it is WAY to expensive to justify the material when there is another book out there that is vastly superior. And though this $100.00 book alone is dedicated to the development of the Essex class aircraft carrier I found FAR more material and details about the Essex carrier in Norman Friedman's U.S. Aircraft Carriers. And Friedman's U.S. Aircraft Carriers covers them ALL and at half the cost. Don't spend the money!

if your looking to detail a essex class carrier model or just looking for good photo's,i bought 4 other books before finding this one.start with this one,you wont be dissapointed.

This may sound like an echo, but not everyone has a need to know maritime engineering facts about a historically significant vessel(s) such as the Essex class. Of course, I wouldn't want a superficial treatise, at this price and volume, there is far too many of those. This one is clearly a pictorial with more than enough of the essential facts to go along with. This book is a GEM!!!! Far better than any of the books I've seen that are addressed to the modeling community.

First, let me describe the book visually, printed in good quality satin paper, text in medium (equivalent to 11 pt I'd think)sized typeface, easy to read, very well edited, didn't catch a single syntax error, which aids in reading pleasure; proportion of text to photos is in favor of photos, about 1 photo / diagram a page or better. The jacket has an annoying habit of sliding out of position, which can be easily solved if you decide to tape it in place or better yet, get a mylar cover.

Now, for the content. Basic design guidelines with an explanation of war-time pressures start the book, followed by a medium in-depth coverage of the ship's development and wartime service. Some very useful tables showing differences between ships of the class regarding displacement, beam, speed, draft levels, etc. Author explains very clearly which set of official blueprints he used, plus the ones he nor anyone else could get a hold of. Then we are treated to the main section, the wartime photographs. To dub it excellent is, in my mind, not quite adequate. I've never seem these photos in such clarity and size. I'm tired to resorting to a magnifying glass just to be able to appreciate the details, don't have to with this book. Most of the photos occupy the whole page, some the full spread, at most 2 photos per page. Every, and I do mean every aspect of the ship is covered pictorially, from the rudder to the radar antennas, and of course, everything in between. No combat photos, which you shouldn't expect in a book of this kind.

Then, the final icing, the drawings and in this case the author has done one better than most books, in that you get up-close photographs right next to the diagrams. For modeler's that is the ultimate value of the book, as it will teach novices how to read naval blueprints. I know I did.

In short, I can't recommend this book highly enough. Well worth the price I paid (a little over $50). Any lower and it would for sure be a bargain.