Category: (Book)
7 new, starting at $31.60
1 used, starting at $41.80
This volume is a complete, technical reference which covers all USN Battleship types, of the World War II and Early Cold War eras of 1941-1963. The book is illustrated with 52 full color original paintings, 86 new line drawings, and 350 photographs,. Featured are a Chronology of WWII, illustrated sections on Radar and Fire Control, Aviation, and Camouflage. This book includes sections on Arkansas BB33 thru Louisiana BB71. It has fully illustrated sections on Gunnery Ships, Utah AG16, Wyoming AG17, and Mississippi AG128. A section on the 'as designed and ordered' 14" armed North Carolina class. Sections on the cancelled South Dakota BB49 and Lexington CC1 class ships. Coverage extends to the Battlecruisers of the Alaska CB1 class. The information contained within this volume has hereto, only been available across a wide spectrum of reference sources. It is now available for the first time, under one set of bookcovers.
For me it is a 4 and a half starsReviewed by Gergely Ákos, 2010-01-14
With this book the author certainly answered the critics of his
first book in the field on content/price ratio. This title is choke
full packed with written and pictoral information on the topic and
is a very handy quick reference. I won't say it is a must have for
those who have an extensive library on the subject (like Friedman
books or the US battleships from Dulin&Garzke), but it's more
handy and the wonderful paintings add a lot to the value. Line
drawings are not bad but certainly not up to the standards of
professional books. I would call them more artistical, so while
they might not be 100% to scale they still give a good, detailed
view on the ships in question.
My only real complaint, and that's why I would rate it for 4 and a
half only, is the sometimes diminutive size of the artworks and
pictures, which is a shame as the artwork is really top notch and
some would deserve at least a full page!
Certainly the author had to keep price down by limiting the length,
still I feel a two partition edition would have been better with
much larger pictures.
I'm looking forward to the Italian and French BB books and in the
end hopefully we will have a full coverage.
William MillerReviewed by William Miller, 2009-12-21
This volume is an excellent read for an overview-level reference
book. The new line drawings and the original full-color paintings
are a fresh take on the sometimes drab world of naval reference
tomes. While I would have liked the book to have been larger, the
slightly smaller proportions did not really affect my enjoyment of
the material as presented.
Some of the new material I have not seen in other sources, and
that, along with the reasonable cost of the book, are just two of
the reasons why I would recommend this book for most naval
aficionados.
Not exactly value for moneyReviewed by Alexander A. Yanakiev, 2009-07-01
Frankly speaking I am slightly disappointed by the book. Despite all the adverstisement it gives a very scant information and uses mostly pictures available in the public domain(i.e. from free online sources)
US Battleships 1913-1962Reviewed by mr katcup, 2009-05-10
This is a small book. The pictures are good but so small as to make them useless.
Prototype for a decent book, but who wants a prototype?Reviewed by F. Stop Fitzgerald, 2009-04-17
This book is not worth your money. It would make a good sales tool
for marketing to a decent publishing house, but this is not a
finished product.
It is in woeful need of two editors - one for the author's words
and one for images. The author, on his contents page, has even
misnamed one his own paintings, unless of course he did mean "Quite
Backwaters". This is only the first of many typo--"A BB took 5-8
mouths to scrap." (p. 68)--grammatical, and construction errors
that mark the effort as amateurish.
On the surface, the book is a grabber, one that any ship fanatic
would feel he couldn't do without. Who can turn their back on 252
photos, 52 paintings, and 86 line drawings of battleships? Wow!
Gotta have it. But wait. That's 390 images on 134 pages and each
page is only 8x10. That's not a lot of real estate for imagery, let
alone any copy. So, the images are all small. It is near impossible
to pick out any detail in the author's paintings or the
photographs. Virtually all the photographs are profile, 3/4 bow -
stern shots. Very few are detail shots, and the reader is supposed
to pick out details from photos barely 2 inches wide.
In a photo book reproduction is paramount. Paper should be pure
white, dense enough for no bleed through from the other side of the
page, and coated for a precise image. This paper is not white, too
thin, and uncoated. The uncoated paper allows the ink to set into
the fibers and bleed, producing a blurred image. Further, the
author apparently doesn't know much about imaging line art. All his
line drawings have significant artifacts which severely affects
their sharpness. They are simply bad. I wish I could comment on his
paintings, but they are too small and so poorly reproduced that a
valid observation cannot be made. That's enough comment in
itself.
I won't go into the copy except to say it is basically a rehash of
the author's sources, all the books of which should be readily
familiar to anyone even beginning to look at the history of
battleships.
Save your money on this incarnation.
If the author ever gets a real publisher this might be worth taking
a second look.
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