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8 Obras 333 Miembros 16 Reseñas

Sobre El Autor

Stephen R. Taaffe is associate professor of history at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Incluye el nombre: Stephen Taaffe

Créditos de la imagen: Stephen F. Austin University

Obras de Stephen R. Taaffe

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Género
male
Nacionalidad
USA

Miembros

Reseñas

A whirlwind of an overview of the events starting with the American defeat in New York through the daring American attack against the Crowned Forces at Monmouth Courthouse.
The author does a good job of moving the timeline forward while informing the reader of the broad strokes of three years of the war. Descriptions and brief back stories of the important people are paired with the key battles in which they participated or plans they made. This includes those in Parliament. Although the descriptions of the battles are brief, there are many included, which gives a comprehensive summary of the many events from 1776 to 1778. All of this taken together makes for an excellent guide to the campaign centered on the British occupation of Philadelphia.… (más)
 
Denunciada
trueblueglue | otra reseña | Nov 23, 2023 |
Having previously written a campaign history of the fighting around Philadelphia in the American Revolution, and dealt with the command politics of the U.S. Army in World War II and Korea, Taaffe melds the two themes in this accounting of how the cadre of flag-grade officers in the American Revolution came to be, beginning with the appointment of George Washington by the Continental Congress, and then examining the processes by which Washington's immediate subordinates came by their positions. As might be expected, this was an intensely political process, to the point that Congress preferred to avoid the whole issue unless they absolutely had to; it being much harder to strip a man of his commission than to award it in the first place. Also, it will come as no surprise to even the most casual reader of American history that it came down to Washington to make the system work, and he generally did so, further justifying his reputation as the indispensable man of the war.

If one wants to point to a prime factor that determined success or failure among these men, it often seems to boil down to just being young enough to have the energy to do the job, and be adaptable enough to learn from one's mistakes (which were numerous!). The older men picked because of their experience in the Seven Years War often just did not have either the health, energy, nerves, or flexibility to grow into their positions.

Highly recommended.
… (más)
 
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Shrike58 | otra reseña | Oct 22, 2023 |
When I grabbed this book off the "new" shelf at library I wasn't paying that close attention to what I was actually getting, apart from having a fair amount of respect for Taaffe. My expectation was that this was going to be a series of capsule biographies, but Taaffe had more ambitious plans, and provides an in-depth examination of how the USMC stable of flag-grade officers evolved through the course of the war; pretty much warts and all. One thing is for sure, Arch Vandegrift, commander of the 1st Marine Division at Guadalcanal, and eventually Commandant of the Marine Corps, was an indispensable man. Despite having embraced amphibious warfare as their mission there was no guarantee that the Marines would become a paragon of achievement had they not made their doctrine work, and Vandegrift was a man who made things work, with as little organizational conflict as could be avoided.

One irony that stands out to me is that the Marine emphasis on speed of execution perhaps came to tell against them as the war progressed, and battles in the Pacific became the case of prolonged sieges, not smash and grab operations to snare a port or an airfield. The more methodical approach of the U.S. Army was probably more appropriate. It is telling that Holland "Howling Mad" Smith, the senior USMC operational commander for much of the war, looked at Iwo Jima and Okinawa as bad deals from the perspective of casualties, even before the battles commenced, but that's why the U.S. Navy liked the Marines; they'd follow orders whether or not it made sense.

Very recommended.
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Denunciada
Shrike58 | Oct 23, 2022 |
I have read other accounts of the New Guinea campaign; what I found useful in this one was its emphasis on the role of the engineers, in getting the infantry ashore, and then creating useful facilities on the ground the infantry took. The author doesn't say so in his (repetitive) concluding section, but it looks to me like the engineers won the war.
 
Denunciada
sonofcarc | 4 reseñas más. | Dec 7, 2020 |

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Obras
8
Miembros
333
Popularidad
#71,381
Valoración
½ 4.3
Reseñas
16
ISBNs
19

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