A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 2018 Oxford University Press On May 2, 2018, the New York-based North American division of Oxford University Press published World War II at Sea: A Global History by Craig L. Symonds. As the title implies, Symonds' nearly 800-page book is a one-volume account of the naval battles that took place during the Second World War from the beginning of the war in Europe on September 1, 1939, to Japan's surrender (fittingly) aboard the battleship USS Missouri six years later. Written by a renowned naval historian and Professor Emeritus and former history department chair at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD,  World War II at Sea: A Global History tells the story of history's largest clash of arms from the perspectives of the Axis and Allied navies, the admirals that led them, and the officers, sailors, Marines, and airmen that fought - and often died - in such diverse places as the River Plate, the Denmark Strait, Cape Matapan, the Coral Sea, Midway, the North Cape, Savo...

© 2015 Oxford University Press On November 30, 2015, the Oxford University Press published Craig L. Symonds' The U.S. Navy: A Concise History. This 152-page hardcover covers the long history of America's naval service from its humble beginnings as the Continental Navy during the American Revolution (1775-83) all the way to its present standing as the strongest military fleet in the world. As the title and number of pages suggest, this book by the author of The Civil War at Sea, The Battle of Midway, and Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History is not a comprehensive account of the 243-year-long history of the United States Navy. Rather, it's akin to an orientation booklet that a midshipman might get upon arrival at the U.S. Naval Academy (where Symonds is a Professor Emeritus in the history department) or something that you or I might find at a gift shop in Annapolis, MD or any Navy town. Per Oxford University Press's description, The U.S...

© 2011 Oxford University Press. Cover photo, US Navy On October 5, 2011, the Oxford University Press published Craig L. Symonds' The Battle of Midway as part of the publisher's Pivotal Moments in American History series.  Based on official American and Japanese historical records, interviews with survivors of the naval campaigns of early 1942, and publications of the period, Symonds' take on one of the most famous - and decisive - battles in the Pacific Theater of Operations explores territory that has been explored by countless writers (including Walter Lord and Gordon W. Prange) and at the same time explodes myths that have been accepted as fact for the past 60 years. The naval Battle of Midway (June 4-6, 1942) has long been considered to be one of the most important naval battles of the Second World War. Almost six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, almost 200 Japanese ships, including four of the six carriers that had launched planes against Hawaii ...