Customer Reviews

tom swift and his war tank

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Reading the books in the original Tom Swift series is a look back to a more jingoistic and simplistic time. This book, written at the height of anti-German feeling in America during World War I, mimics some of the more propagandistic publications of that era.

In this installment Tom is given an exemption from military service, which gets him unfairly branded as a slacker. The mandate is that everyone must "do their bit" for the war effort. In truth, he is working on a new and more powerful military tank and is sworn to secrecy so he cannot defend himself. Like most of the inventions showcased in the original series, the new device is an improvement on an existing technology and not a revolution.

The villains in this case are German spies trying to glean Tom's secrets. In keeping with the jingoistic, simplistic portrayals they are not terribly efficient at the spy trade, failing largely due to their own incompetence rather than any effective countermeasures on the part of Tom Swift. Two black men, the giant, simplistic Koku and the stereotypically speaking Eradicate serve to remind us how deeply rooted the absurd and insulting characterizations of blacks was in American society of the time.

Of course, at the end, the German spies are thwarted and Tom's invention is off to help save the world for democracy and end "the war to end all wars." Which was itself a simplistic and naive notion.

When I was a young boy I read the adventures of Tom Swift, Jr., the son of the Tom Swift (now referred to as Tom Swift, Sr.) in this series of books. I was accustomed to the science fiction stories in the new series, but this series of books is more oriented to the technology of its era.

This book is book number twenty-one in the series, and was originally published in 1918. Tom is developing an improved war tank. The actual description of the tank is minimal, but considering the number of people manning the tank and the description of the interior, the tank appeared to be quite large. Tom's principal improvements to the tank seemed to be that the tank would travel at about 10 miles per hour as opposed to the British tanks that Tom used for comparison, and the tank contained a mechanism that would permit it to travel across wider trenches. I was interested to note that the tank's primary armament was machine guns and the tank did not appear to have a cannon.

Howard Garis wrote this story during World War I, and there are many colloquial references to Germans. Other contemporary references such as the sale of Liberty Bonds make this story an interesting artifact of its era.

As I noted above, Tom is doing his part for the war effort by creating an improved tank. Since an improved tank would help the allies and harm Germany, German spies attempt to obtain information about the tank and the tank itself throughout the story. Frustrated by Tom and his friends, the spies eventually resort to kidnapping Tom Swift.

This story has a lot of action, particularly when the tank is in action. However, the book also has a lot of slow moments until we see the tank in action. Fortunately, the action portions of the story outweigh the slower portions. The action is typically dramatic. The tank crashes through buildings and machine guns are test-fired to dramatic effect. The descriptions of the tank by those who only get glimpses of it are quite humorous.

I give readers a warning regarding stereotypes in this book. This era was close to us, but many other races were routinely represented stereotypically in that era. Such is the case with Eradicate Sampson, who Howard Garis depicted as quite intelligent and helpful, but in a very demeaning way.

I found this book enjoyable once I became used to the style of the writing. I think that adults who are fans of Tom Swift, Jr. and those looking for a quaint mystery from the era before World War I will find this book an interesting read.