United States Navy/Bibliography

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Surveys

• Baer, George W. One Hundred Years of Sea Power: The U.S. Navy, 1890-1990 (1994), 553pp
• Coletta, Paolo E., ed. American Secretaries of the Navy (2 vol 1980) 1028 pp; essays by scholars on each secretary down to 1972
• Dorwart, Jeffery M. The Philadelphia Navy Yard: From the Birth of the U.S. Navy to the Nuclear Age (2000) excerpt and text search
• Hagan, Kenneth J. People's Navy: The Making of American Sea Power (1991) , 434pp
• Howarth, Stephen. To Shining Sea -- A History of the United States Navy, 1775-1991 (1991).
• Love, Robert W. History of the US Navy: 1775-1941 (1992) excerpt and text search; 'History of the US Navy: 1942-1991 (1992) excerpt and text search
• Potter, E. B. Sea Power: A Naval History (1982), stress on battles

1775 to 1890

• Anderson, Bern. By Sea and by River: The Naval History of the Civil War (1989) excerpt and text search
• Coggins, Jack. Ships and Seamen of the American Revolution (1969). encyclopedic survey of the ships, cannon, gear, sailors , tactics, and actions of U.S. and British navies.
• Fowler, William M., Jr. Rebels Under Sail: The American Navy During the Revolution (1976). a topical analysis of the operations and administration of the Continental Navy
• Fowler, William M. Jack Tars and Commodores: The American Navy, 1783-1815 (1984), popular
• Karsten, Peter. The Naval Aristocracy: The Golden Age of Annapolis and the Emergence of Modern American Navalism (1972)
• Mahan, Alfred Thayer. The influence of sea power upon the War of 1812 2 vols (1905) online edition
• McKee , Christopher. A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: The Creation of the U.S. Naval Officer Corps, 1794-1815 (1991).
• Miller, Nathan. Sea of Glory: A Naval History of the American Revolution (1974); covers all aspects of the naval war
• Morison, Samuel Eliot. John Paul Jones (1959), Pulitzer Prize excerpt and text search
• Nash, Howard P., Jr. The Forgotten Wars: The Role of the U. S. Navy in the Quasi War with France and the Barbary Wars, 1798-1805 (1968).
• Palmer, Michael A. Stoddert's War: Naval Operations During the Quasi-War with France, 1798-1801 (1987).
• Roosevelt, Theodore. The Naval War of 1812 (1882). eText at Project Gutenberg
• Skaggs, David Curtis. Thomas Mcdonough: Master of Command in the Early U.S. Navy. Naval Institute Press, 2003. 257 pp.
• Thomas, Evan. John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy (2003) excerpt and text search
• Toll, Ian W. Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy (2006)
• Tucker, Spencer C. The Jeffersonian Gunboat Navy (1993).

1890 to 1939

• Andrade, Jr., Ernest. "Submarine Policy in the United States Navy, 1919-1941," Military Affairs, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Apr., 1971), pp. 50-56 in JSTOR
• Braisted, William Reynolds. The United States Navy in the Pacific, 1909-1922 (1972)
• Challener, Richard. Admirals, Generals and American Foreign Policy, 1898-1914 (1973)
• Coletta, Paolo. Admiral Bradley A. Fiske and the American Navy (1979)
• Feuer, A.B. The U.S. Navy in World War I: Combat at Sea and in the Air 1999 online edition
• Harrod, Frederick S. The Manning of the New Navy: The Development of a Modern Naval Enlisted Force, 1899-1940 (1978). By 1930 the navy successfully recruited and trained a nearly permanent force of technically skilled career seamen
• Puleston, W. D. The Life and Work of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, U.S.N 1939 online edition
• West, Richard S. Admirals of American Empire: The Combined Story of George Dewey, Alfred Thayer Mahan, Winfield Scott Schley, and William Thomas Sampson (1948)
• Williams, William J. "Josephus Daniels and the U.S. Navy's Shipbuilding Program During World War I," The Journal of Military History, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Jan., 1996), pp. 7-38 in JSTOR

World War II

• Blair, Clay Jr. Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan (1975).
• Hoyt, Edwin P. Submarines at War: The History of the American Silent Service (1983), popular
• King, Ernest J. U.S. Navy at War, 1941-1945: Official Reports to the Secretary of the Navy (1946) online edition
• Lindley, John M. Carrier Victory: The Air War in the Pacific (1978).
• Love, Robert W. History of the US Navy: 1942-1991 (1992) excerpt and text search
• Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War (1963), one-volume version of his massive 15 vol history (1947-62) of combat operations:
  • The Battle of the Atlantic: September 1939 - May 1943
  • Operations in North African Waters: October 1942 - June 1943
  • The Rising Sun in the Pacific: 1931 - April 1942
  • Coral Sea, Midway, and Submarine Actions: May 1942 - August 1942
  • The Struggle for Guadalcanal: August 1942 - February 1943
  • Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier: 22 July 1942 - 1 May 1944
  • Aleutians, Gilberts, and Marshalls: June 1942 - April 1944
  • New Guinea and the Marianas: March 1944 - August 1944
  • Sicily - Salerno - Anzio: January 1943 - June 1944
  • The Atlantic Battle Won: May 1943 - May 1945
  • The Invasion of France and Germany: 1944 - 1945
  • Leyte: June 1944 - January 1945
  • The Liberation of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas: 1944 - 1945
  • Victory in the Pacific: 1945
  • Supplement and General Index
• Potter, E.B. Nimitz (1988)
• Prange, Gordon W. Miracle at Midway (1982).
• Reynolds, Clark G. The Fast Carriers: Forging of an Air Navy (1968).
• Turnbull, Archibald D. and Clifford Lord. History of United States Naval Aviation (1949).
• Willmott, H. P. The Barrier and the Javelin: Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies, February to June, 1942 (1983). The Japanese island-centered strategy was flawed because it spread their forces thin & allowed USN to concentrate its forces to stop the Japanese at the Coral Sea and then to win at Midway.
• Woodward, C. Vann. The Battle of Leyte Gulf (1947)
• Y'Blood, William T. Red Sun Setting: The Battle of the Philippine Sea (1981), popular narrative

Cold war and after

• Brasher, Bart. Implosion: Downsizing the U.S. Military, 1987-2015 (2000) online edition
• Duncan, Francis. Rickover and the Nuclear Navy (1990).
• Hartmann, Frederick H. Naval Renaissance -- The U.S. Navy in the 1980s (1990).
• Lehman, John F., Jr. Command of the Seas: Building the 600 Ship Navy (1989).
• Love, Robert W. History of the US Navy: 1942-1991 (1992) excerpt and text search
• Marolda, Edward J., and Oscar P. Fitzgerald. The United States Navy and the Vietnam Conflict: From Military Assistance to Combat 1959-1965. (1987), 591pp
• Muir, Malcolm, Jr. Black Shoes and Blue Water: Surface Warfare in the United States Navy, 1945-1975. (1996). 348pp
• Polmar, Norman. The American Submarine (1981). well-illustrated popular history
• Ryan, Paul B. First Line of Defense -- The U.S. Navy Since 1945 (

Primary sources

• "Teaching With Documents: Launching the New U.S. Navy", National Archives
• Naval Historical Center, with index to Action Reports, oral histories and other special reports, photos, teacher lesson plans, and excerpts from a Navy Museum exhibition