AWARDS
"If By Sea" received the Samuel Eliot Morison Award from the New York Commandery of the Naval Order of the U.S. in New York City on November 3, 2008. The award is given every year to an "American author, who by his published writings shall have made a substantial contribution to the preservation of the history and traditions of the US Navy".
"If By Sea" has received an Honorable Mention for the prestigious 2009 Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award. "The award is presented each year to the author of the best, newly published work on the American Revolutionary period, combining original scholarship, insight and good writing,......." The committee is also empowered to name additonal awards such as Honorable Mentions..... whenever they deem appropriate".
Best Seller Lists
#5 on the best seller list for the San Francisco Chronicle.
#8 on the best seller list for the Maine Sunday Telegram.
Review
"This is a book for those who like their history braced by serious thinking - and spiced by action. Goerge Daughan makes us realize just how complicated it was for Americans to acquire a navy - and keep one - for the first three decades of our national existence. Simultaneously he grips us with vivid narratives of what these mostly forgotten sailors accomlished."
Thomas Fleming, author of The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle to Survive after Yorktown.
Review
"If By Sea" illuminates the tangles and contested origins of American naval power better than any other book in recent memory. Daughan has a sharp eye for detail as well as a firm grasp of the big picture. His writing combines passionate conviction with a deep knowledge of seamanship in a way reminiscent of Samuel Eliot Morison. This is a book I will read again."
Edwin G Burrows, co-author of Gotham
Review
"If By Sea by George C. Daughan covers the Navy's first forty years with authority, clarity and detail. He puts the famous names - John Paul Jones, Oliver Hazard Perry - in context, while bringing others - including dozens of Revolutionary War figures, hitherto unknown to me - to light. He shows how the military, like any other large organization, lurches and learns over time, from blunders, missed opportunities and general snafu, until those moments when the right men are at headquarters and in the field, and everything gloriously clicks."
Richard Brookhiser, author of George Washington on Leadership and What Would the Founders Do?
More Reviews
Reviews are added below as they come in. In order not to be too repetitive many of the reviews are condensed.
"Improvised at the outset of the Revolution and neglected between 1783 and 1794, America's navy achieved respectability in the Barbary War, fame in the War of 1812. Concurrently, it was the object of a bitter political feud between the Federalists, who held that the central government needed to afford a navy, and the Democrats, who feared what having a navy and other established military forces might lead that government to do. Besides the battles and the politics, Daughan clearly recounts the evolution of American warship design (or acquisition) during the period covered and sketches a great many significant figures, including not only such household names as John Paul Jones and Stephen Decatur but also such equally capable officers as Nicholas Biddle and Richard Somers, killed in action before they could fulfill their promise, and such also-rans as Esek Hopkins, first commander of an American fleet, and Richard Dale. This stout tome wil probably stand for some time as the best single-volume history of the roots of the U.S. Navy."...........Roland Green
