An excellant book which gives the average individual an insight to one of the most remarkable ships in the US Navy. Covers the history from the ships design to her scrapping. Tells in great detail, yet in a very readable text, the story of the crew, the officers and the ship in World War II.

Battleship at War catalogs the relatively brief but action packed career of USS Washington, one of the great ships to serve in the Navy during World War Two. Of all the American battleships to serve during the war, Washington had the most distinguished career, serving in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, and sinking the Japanese battleship Kirishima during the Second Naval battle of Guadalcanal. This book righfully takes its place alongside Edward Stafford's "The Big E" (which narrates the career of the carrier Enterprise) as a premier work of the genre. It is incredible to me that both of these great titles are out of print, just as it is incredible to me that the richest country in the world could have failed to preserve these proud ships when other ships with much less distinguished careers survive to this day. Battleship at War is a must read for anybody who is serious about naval history.

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In 1898 the United States went to war with Spain under the slogan "Remember the Maine". While most history textbooks tell us that it was over the Maine that we went to war, in "Empire by Default: The Spanish-American War and the Dawn of the American Century", Ivan Musicant contends that war with Spain was in actuality a fait accompli.

This is the most significant aspect of Musicant's work. He positions the war as being fought, not because of geopolitical concerns or souring foreign relations, but because of domestic political considerations in both Spain and the United States. Neither side could back down from what was an avoidable war because, which ever government blinked first would have been brought down in its turn.

Beyond this though there isn't much to recommend "Empire by Default" relating to new scholarship on the war. Musicant spouts the consensus line that the war brought America out of its isolationist shell and into the world of international politics. This actually may be true for the post-Civil War period; but, excepting this period and that following World War I, the United States was not an isolationist country. We were as involved in international affairs then as we are now. The prime difference between then and now is that now we typically control the international stage whereas before we were just a member of the cast.

Musicant also is a bit misleading with his title. A book called "Empire by Default" leads me to believe that it will have quite a bit to do with the effects of the war, primarily our acquisition of Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Instead Musicant only briefly mentions the struggles we faced following the immediate acquisition of the Philippines and this only in relation to the scandals that the War Department faced in early 1899. On Puerto Rico Musicant is entirely silent.

The majority of the book deals with the operations on the battlefield and the preparations the United States government made for the war. This is interesting history but not very informative. History for history's sake is fine; but, I like to at least try to glean some important information from everything that I read. In this, "Empire by Default" comes up short.

A wonderful military book. This book details the Spanish America war and its environs. it details the important figures like Mahan, Dewey, Roosevelt. It details the rise of guerrilla warfare in Cuba and the Phillipines. Nevertheless I felt it did not eleborate on the importance of the conflict internationally. It iverestimated the Americans as showsing the war to be won before it was fought. The reality of the conflict, the first defeat of a European power by a non-european power(the Russo-Japanese war was in 1905). Although one passage relates the newspaper jingoism detailing the first shots of the rugged americans against the sparkling halmets of the Spanish soldiers, it underestimates the impact of this war in which the Americans whiped european colonism off the face of the American continent.

It takes some skill to hold a reader's attention for 658 pages. Musicant generally succeeds in his narrative of the Spanish-American war. A specialist in naval history, Musicant gives particularly close attention to the naval battles at Manila and Santiago de Cuba. His description of the gallant but hopeless attempt by the Spanish fleet to escape from Santiago is gripping. Other striking sections describe the chaos of the American embarkation at Tampa and the suffering of American troops investing Santiago. In other parts of the book, the detailed accounts of military politics and preparations may lead many readers to skip ahead. The most disappointing part of the book is the last chapter titled "Empire," a very abbreviated commentary on "the dawn of the American century." The book is reasonably well served by its few maps and its black and white photographs.

This excellent title describes in good detail the small wars that the United States Marine Corps was involved in from 1898-1989 in the Caribbean. Mr. Musicant (a former Marine himself) weaves a well-written tale, which is primarily focused in the military situation, but adding just enough of the political background so that one who has little or no knowledge on the subject comes away with a full understanding of our involvement in these "banana wars". Recommended reading!

This introduction to the naval history of the Civil War suffers from the author's bias, which interferes with his ability to provide readers with a scholarly, objective analysis. Musicant sometimes seems to spend more time making snide remarks and calling people names than he does analyzing his sources.

However, if one can get past the bias, this is a reasonably complete introduction to the Civil War at sea, and the text is well furnished with quotes, which adds excitement. Ironclads get most of the attention here, with the commerce raiders and, strangely, the Hunley, rather scanted.

Ivan Musicant's account is thouroughly researched and highly accurate but lacks the enjoyable qualities of Still's or Melton's books on the same subject. While the largest portion on Musicant's book focuses on the USN and CSN ironclads the book is trying to cover too many things at once.

Nevertheless it is a good starting point for interested students of Civil War naval history but if your interest lies primarily in ironclads there is better.

Divided Waters becomes more usable as a reference when compared with and offset with Maurice Melton and William Still. I also felt that Mr. Musicant's angle was slightly subjective, leaning towards the Union eyewitness accounts.

In Divided Waters, Ivan Musicant provides a solid, although at times basic, overview of Confederate and Union naval efforts, strategies, conflicts and technological developments during the Civil War. Organized by theater of operations instead of chronologically, there are some moments where the events of one chapter seem odd in the context of the previous chapter, but this is a minor flaw. Probably the most interesting chapter is the all-too-short discussion of CSA-USA conflicts on the high seas and around the world; it is interesting to read about the delicate dance naval officers played in ports as far away as Brazil and France. Musicant is obviously a fan of ironclads, and a great deal of the book is devoted to their use in various campaigns. He gives equal time to their successes and shortfalls.