Roger Thompson (2)

This book was apparently meant to be a hard-headed critique about how the United States Navy is living on past glories, has not prepared for asymmetric warfare, and has major problems in personnel management leading to chronic lousy performance. This would be a fine thing. What you mostly get is a grab-bag collection of some of the Navy's more embarrassing moments (with little context provided) by a writer of Canadian descent who, though he insists otherwise, is obviously carrying around a show more large chip on his shoulder in regards to the ol' U.S. of A. For all that a fairly good essay could probably be carved out of this book, but perhaps the failures of American civilization have also let the author down in terms of editing, as his choice of sources are often problematic, his writing can be prolix, and he doesn't do that great a job about elucidating a thesis over and above implying that the plight of the U.S.N. is mostly due to rampant careerism. What Thompson really needed to do is produce a serious analysis of the historical contingincies that have produced the current lousy situation, but he's much more interested in cultivating an image as an iconoclast. show less