Education Update: 8 Bells Lecture Series 2014 Schedule

The Eight Bells Book Lecture Series

The format of the Eight Bells Lecture Series has the author speaking about 40-45 minutes on the topic of his book and the facts leading to its publication. The last 15-20 minutes are given over for audience members to ask questions on the topic.  Those who are able to remain after the allotted hour can stay and discuss the book further and have the book signed. Copies of the books are on sale in the Naval War College Foundation Gift Shop. As always, this event is a brown-bag affair which is free and open to the public.

Call the museum at 401-841-4052 to confirm dates and to make a reservation if you do not have access to Naval Station Newport. Reservations must be made at least one business day in advance of visit.

 

5 December 2013: The Battle of Midway: The Naval Institute Guide to the U.S. Navy’s Greatest Victory edited by Thomas C. Hone

This edited collection is an anthology of memoirs, oral histories, articles and other relevant government documents focusing on events leading up to the battle, the battle, and follow-on interpretations of the events.  Tom Hone is a former faculty member of the Naval War College.





12 December 2013: 21^st Century Mahan: Sound Military Conclusions for a Modern Era by LCDR B.J. Armstrong

Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Seapower upon History is well known to students of naval history and strategy, but his other writings are often dismissed as irrelevant to today's problems. This collection of five of Mahan's essays, along with Benjamin Armstrong's informative introductions, illustrates why Mahan's work remains relevant to the 21st century and how it can help develop our strategic thinking.  Armstrong's analysis is derived directly from Mahan's own writings. From the challenges of bureaucratic organization and the pit falls of staff duty, to the development of global strategy and fleet composition, to illustrations of effective combat leadership, Armstrong demonstrates that Mahan's ideas continue to provide today's readers with a solid foundation to address the challenges of a rapidly globalizing world.

 

9 January 2014: Legendary Locals of Newport: by Annie Sherman

In Legendary Locals of Newport, local magazine editor Annie Sherman chronicles centuries of these characters tales using images from the islands many historic archives, libraries, organizations, and print media.

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16 January 2014: The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World by Lincoln Paine

Lincoln Paine takes us back to the origins of long-distance migration by sea from Africa and Eurasia to Australia and the Americas. He demonstrates the critical role of maritime trade to the civilizations of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley draws upon the examples of the Phoenicians and Greeks, as well as those of India, Southeast and East Asia who parlayed their navigational skills, shipbuilding techniques, and commercial acumen to establish vibrant overseas colonies and trade routes in the centuries leading up to the age of European overseas expansion.

23 January 2014: Blowtorch: Robert Komer, Vietnam and American Cold War Strategy by Frank Jones

Robert Komer was a Cold War national security policy and strategy adviser to three presidents and one of the most influential national security professionals of his time.  This biography gives a useful summary of Komer’s impact on American policy and strategy, and looks at the legacy relating to today’s policies.

6 February 2014:  Congo: The Miserable Expeditions and Dreadful Death of LT Emory Taunt, USN by Andy Jampoler

A young naval officer is given the mission to explore the Congo River in May 1885 and tasked with reporting on opportunities for American business interests.  The trip which had started out with such great promise and hope for wealth ended with bankruptcy, disgrace, and, ultimately, death. 

13 February 2014: A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith

Set in the 1930s, this novel is about five American women who travel to France to visit the graves of the sons lost during World War I.  The women come from different ethnic and social background and initially it would seem that the only common thread was their identification as Gold Star Mothers.  The pilgrimage to France changes that as they work through the grief they had been carrying.

 

20 February 2014: Hero of the Angry Sky: The World War I Diary and Letters of David S.Ingalls, America's First Naval Ace by Geoffrey L. Rossano and William F. Trimble

Hero of the Angry Sky draws on the unpublished diaries, correspondence, informal memoir, and other personal documents of the U.S. Navy’s only flying “ace” of World War I to tell his unique story. This edited collection of Ingalls’s writing details the career of the U.S. Navy’s most successful combat flyer from that conflict.  While Ingalls’s wartime experiences are compelling at a personal level, they also illuminate the larger, but still relatively unexplored, realm of early U.S. naval aviation.

 

 

 6 March 2014 – An American Knight by Tory Failmezger

This is the story of the 601^st Tank Destroyer Battalion during World War II as told in the letters of Lt. Thomas Peter Welch.  From stateside to North Africa, to Salerno, Anzio, and crossing the Siegfried Line, he saw it all.  But, there was no storybook ending for Welch upon returning to the United States.  Adjustment was difficult. 

13 March 2014: Proceed to Peshawar: The Story of a U.S. Navy Intelligence Mission on the Afghan Border, 1943 by George Hill

A previously untold intelligence mission involving two American naval officers who traveled along 800 miles of the Durand Line, the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, gaining a first look of the area for the United States government.

27 March 2014: The Morenci Marines: A Tale of Small Town America and the Vietnam War by Kyle Longley

This is the story of nine young men who left Morenci, Arizona, and joined the Marine Corp to fight in Vietnam.  Three survived.  Their story was covered by ABC News and Time magazine, as well as being voted the most important veterans’ story in state history.  With extensive personal interviews and access to personal correspondence, the author is able to add new detail to this story of loss, grief and guilt.

3 April 2014: The Shining Sea: David Porter and the Epic Voyage of the USS Essex During the War of 1812 by George Daughan

The biography of one of the early heroes of the early Navy, a veteran of the Quasi-War with France and the war with Tripoli, Porter was given command of USS Essex to take the war to the British and attack their shipping in the South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  His search for glory ultimately costs him his ship and the lives of over two-thirds of his crew.  This was one of the great voyages of the War of 1812 and reveals an individual with flaws bordering on megalomania.  

10 April 2014: Pushing the Limits: The Remarkable Life and Times of Vice Admiral Allan Rockwell McCann, USN by Carl LaVO 

This book is an overdue appreciation of a significant admiral who had an extraordinary career following his graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1913.  He saw action in both World War I and II, was involved in the rescue of survivors in the USS Squalus (SS 192), the development of the McCann Submarine Rescue Chamber, and was tasked by President Truman to investigate the Revolt of the Admirals.

8 May 2014: A Two-Edged Sword: the Navy as an Instrument of Canadian Foreign Policy by Dr. Nicholas Tracy

In the first major study of the Royal Canadian Navy's contribution to foreign policy, Nicholas Tracy takes a comprehensive look at the paradox that Canada faces in participating in a system of collective defense. Created in 1910 to support Canadian autonomy, the Royal Canadian Navy has played an important role in defining Canada's relationship with the United Kingdom, the United States, and NATO as the Navy's priorities have realigned since the end of the Cold War.

15 May 2014: A Tainted Dawn: The Great War (1792-1815) Book I by B.N. Peacock

The first book of a planned trilogy surrounding the lives of three youths set as England and Spain are on the brink of war. France, allied by treaty with Spain, readies her warships. As diplomats in Europe race to avoid conflict, war threatens to explode in the Caribbean, with the three youths pitted against each other.

 

22 May 2014: The Liberty Incident Revealed: The Definitive Account of the 1967 Israeli Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship by A. Jay Cristol

In 2002, Cristol published The Liberty Incident.  As there were many unanswered questions regarding aspects of the attack, Cristol pursued a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against NSA which has allowed an expanded and more in-depth analysis of the details surrounding the event.  The six new chapters go a long way to providing the truth in this sensational, media story.

29 May 2014:  With Commodore Perry to Japan: The Journal of William Speiden Jr., 1852-1855 edited by David Ranzan and John Wolter

Seen through the eyes of a sixteen year old purser’s clerk onboard USS Mississippi, this is an account of M.C. Perry’s expedition to Japan which provides much insight into the social history of the ship and the historic event which was the backdrop.

5 June 2014: The Lucky Few by Jan Herman

The final, chaotic events of the Vietnam War and the role played by the USS Kirk in rendering humanitarian assistance to remnants of the South Vietnamese fleet and the thousands of refugees fleeing Communist forces and trying to make it to freedom.

12 June 2014: Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed by Sandy Grimes 

Written by two of the CIA principals involved in identifying Ames as a Soviet mole and one of the most destructive traitors in American history, this book is also the first to provide details of the operational contact with the agents Ames betrayed, as well as similar cases with which the authors also had personal involvement—a total of sixteen operational histories in all.