Navy Times Book of Submarines [Hardcover]

Brayton Harris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1997

Here is an engaging, informative, and sometimes startling history of the men and the machines that dared to go beneath the surface of the water to enter combat. In his careful reconstruction of events, Brayton Harris combines his extraordinary sense of humor with intensive research, to present a compelling history of the submarine, from conception, to gestation, to birth during World War I, to the genesis of the mighty nuclear submarine. In his excursion through the political, social, and military history of the submarine, Harris refutes many popular myths that grew out of eyewitness accounts and copies of copies-and sets the record straight with wit and insight. A fascinating exploration of the steps and stumbles during development, a rousing tribute to the heroes who fought and died, and a powerful study of the submarine's impact on America, The Navy Times Book of Submarines is an unparalleled source for understanding the great equalizer, the beguiling boat, that decided the outcome of World War I-and changed the face of warfare forever.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brayton Harris, USN (Ret.), is an author and lecturer specializing in maritime and military subjects. His writings include The Age of the Battleship: 1890-1922, and shorter pieces in magazines as varied as Saturday Review and Naval Institute Proceedings. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 398 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1st edition (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425157776
• ISBN-13: 978-0425157770
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,232,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended look at political and social issues, June 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Navy Times Book of Submarines (Hardcover)

While much of any history of submarines will focus on things mechanical, this book goes much farther and more than justifies its sub-title, "A Political, Social and Military History." I was fascinated to see that the political and social aspects of military systems -- or strategies -- have not changed much over the four hundred or so years covered by this book. A comment on comments of "Reader from Rochester" who offered an unflattering review -- where Reader found "superior attitude," I found (and enjoyed) sardonic humour. Be that as it may, Reader ought to hire-out as a professional copy editor, because the irritating errors he spotted (i.e., typos) obviously slid by the publisher's fact-checkers and proofreaders. As for the 3"/50 caliber deck gun -- that's a designation used for naval guns, where "caliber" is the length of the barrel measured as a multiple of the diameter of the bore. Thus, in this instance, a 3" bore and a 150" tube. Obviously, the publisher's copy editor didn't understand this, either, and stuck a period in front of the 50.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating look at a very mis-understood subject., December 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Navy Times Book of Submarines (Hardcover)

I picked up this title to round out my collection--and discovered that it seems to have made some portions of "my collection" obsolete. Following Harris's lead, I could see where a lot of other authors, including several who are very well-known today, seem to have been copying each other without making any apparent effort to check their facts. Oh, there may be some errors in this book; I found one--the WWII USS Nautilus probably did not "give the coup de grace to the crippled Japanese carrier Soryu," although a lot of authors have also said so. Whatever--this is not only a "must have" for any serious student of naval warfare--but is actually an enjoyable read.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones., May 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Navy Times Book of Submarines (Hardcover)

This book stands out from others in its subject area by the amount of space it devotes to coverage of the very early days of submarines, a subject little covered by others.

However, my enjoyment of it was greatly diminished by the manner in which the author repeatedly heaps scorn upon the other books which apparently contain factual errors that are now finally being corrected in this volume. I rapidly tired of the author's superior attitude, and eventually found myself being annoyed by it.

But despite the fact that this book is quick to criticize other submarine books for being "riddled with errors," it suffers from the same defect itself! Many ship's names are misspelled (Thetis, Ramillies, Plantagenet, etc), gun calibers are quoted in an erroneous manner (I've never heard of a 3 inch / .50 caliber), Hitler's birthday is given incorrectly as 4/18, and numerous other words and names are misspelled. And these are only the ones that I recognized straight away; who knows if other facts are garbled. Perhaps this author too was "in a hurry" to go to press, and thus committed the same mistake of allowing errors to slip through. I realize that the items I listed are mostly of a minor nature, but for a book which makes such a big deal about the errors of others, they are inexcusable. The only other submarine book that I have read which contains the same density of defects is Peter Padfield's "War Beneath the Sea", but then Padfield doesn't assume any tones of superiority, so he is much easier to forgive.

In all, a useful addition to the submarine bookshelf, but flawed, mostly by the author's tiresome attitude.