Top 10 Missing Naval Books

[Karl Heidenreich]

Which book could be considered the similar to Raven & Roberts for US Battleships? Friedman´s? What about Garzke and Dulin?

[wfzimmerman]

That´s why when I see a book that looks interesting I inmediately buy it...no matter if I am not going to read it soon. I learned the lesson.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I’m a cheap SoB when it comes to books. With the advent of the internet, I’m always looking for that cheapest deal, and have not acquired some of the books I desire as a result. However, I have been able to acquire more books than I would have otherwise been able to because of this. Not sure if I’m ahead or behind with this strategy – I'll probably figure it out when it’s too late…by the way, anyone looking to buy books, I can recommend http://www.edwardrhamilton.com/ Takes me hours to go through the lists but the result is worth it. One price for shipping - $3.50 – if you order one book or 100. My mailman hates me when I order 60 lbs worth. A while ago, I picked up Roberts ‘”Battlecruiser” book for about $5.00. That was worth my time and effort.

OK -- next step -- does anyone have contact info for any of these authors? or are there any books published before 1922 that are worthy?

Question sir – aren’t a lot of books published before 1922 on open source web sites like Google Books? Are there enough people who wish to own the artifact instead of downloading the pdf file to make printing a worthwhile venture for you? Books like Hovgaard’s http://books.google.com/books?id=VoprAA ... q=&f=false

Well, yes and no. The content of the books before 1922 is copyright free, but a) Google's terms of use discourage (although they do not absolutely forbid) business use of their PDFs except b) for huge business partners like U of M libraries and Espresso Book Machines, who *are* going to be offering "print the GBS scan" services pretty soon; however c) the GBS scans are generally pretty ugly with library markings, pencil notes, even fingernail clippings visible. to do a professional job one would need a book to disassemble and scan. Also, one would need some angle more than just reprinting the book.

How about an annotated version of Hovgaard and other pre 1922 books ?I could put a PDF up on a web site and encourage people from this site (and others) to offer annotations per page. "Hovgaard's is still the best description of armored cruiser such-and-such" ... "Hovgaard's assessment, although reasonable at the time, has been disproven by later scholarship..."

[USS ALASKA]

Which book could be considered the similar to Raven & Roberts for US Battleships? Friedman´s? What about Garzke and Dulin?

Sir, it depends on what you are looking for as to which one might meet your needs. The answer might be ‘both’. Garzke and Dulin’s book is subtitled ‘United States Battleships 1935-1992’. Everything you want to know about North Carolina, South Dakota, Iowa, and Montana classes. (They also include the Alaskas so maybe this should be titled ‘United States Non-Aviation Capital Ships 1935-1992’? :-) ). If you are looking for info on say Maryland or New York, then it is the Friedman that you want. And Alan Raven provided support to Friedman with ship plans.

United States Battleships 1935-1992 goes into incredible detail about the few ship classes it is targeted on. Friedman’s is more of a US Battleship history, if you will, from Pre-Dreds forward. And like 'United States Battleships 1935-1992', Friedman’s also has separate chapters on North Carolina, South Dakota, Iowa, and Montana classes but alas, nothing on the Alaskas – he included it in his US Cruisers book where, IMVHO, it more properly belongs.

If Tiornu is about, he can give a much better critique about the pluses and minuses of these volumes than my overly sophomoric description. I enjoy both books and while there is some overlap with the information provided, they are complementary for the most part. The one criticism I have read about Friedman’s is the lack of notes. For a book with 450 pages of primary material, there is a little over 4 pages of ‘Notes on Sources’. If that type of thing is important to you, you might find that a little disconcerting.

Hope this helps

[Karl Heidenreich]

USS ALASKA:

Thank you for your opinion. It seems to me that I will have to buy me both of them because I´m interested in ALL what regard of the USN BBs since the turn of the century (XX). And that includes the early dreadnoughts, the "AoN" scheme (which means Friedman, who I have in great regard as Raven & Roberts). Then it useless to refer to the need of the other book as well.

Best regards,

Karl

[wfzimmerman]

Which book could be considered the similar to Raven & Roberts for US Battleships? Friedman´s? What about Garzke and Dulin?

Sir, it depends on what you are looking for as to which one might meet your needs. The answer might be ‘both’. Garzke and Dulin’s book is subtitled ‘United States Battleships 1935-1992’. Everything you want to know about North Carolina, South Dakota, Iowa, and Montana classes. (They also include the Alaskas so maybe this should be titled ‘United States Non-Aviation Capital Ships 1935-1992’? :-) ). If you are looking for info on say Maryland or New York, then it is the Friedman that you want. And Alan Raven provided support to Friedman with ship plans.

United States Battleships 1935-1992 goes into incredible detail about the few ship classes it is targeted on. Friedman’s is more of a US Battleship history, if you will, from Pre-Dreds forward. And like 'United States Battleships 1935-1992', Friedman’s also has separate chapters on North Carolina, South Dakota, Iowa, and Montana classes but alas, nothing on the Alaskas – he included it in his US Cruisers book where, IMVHO, it more properly belongs.

If Tiornu is about, he can give a much better critique about the pluses and minuses of these volumes than my overly sophomoric description. I enjoy both books and while there is some overlap with the information provided, they are complementary for the most part. The one criticism I have read about Friedman’s is the lack of notes. For a book with 450 pages of primary material, there is a little over 4 pages of ‘Notes on Sources’. If that type of thing is important to you, you might find that a little disconcerting.

Hope this helps

They are both great references. the "missing" books I would like to see are more evaluative in nature.

[Bgile]

Fortunately my wife gave me one of Friedman's books for Christmas every year until now I think I have them all. Just last week I was looking at the destroyer book. He gives good insight into the reasoning behind the evolution of these ships. I just wish it included the newer ones, but the book was published before they appeared on the scene.

[USS ALASKA]

They are both great references. the "missing" books I would like to see are more evaluative in nature.

Can you give an example of what you are looking for? If anything like that exists?