Since 1845, the United States Naval Academy has prepared professional military leaders at its Annapolis, Maryland, campus. Although it remains steeped in a culture of tradition and discipline, the Academy is not impervious to change. Dispelling the myth that the Academy is a bastion of tradition unmarked by progress, H. Michael Gelfand examines challenges to the Naval Academy's culture from both inside and outside the Academy's walls between 1949 and 2000, an era of dramatic social change in American history. Drawing on more than two hundred oral histories, extensive archival research, and his own participatory observation at the Academy, Gelfand demonstrates that events at Annapolis reflect the transformation of American culture and society at large in the Cold War and post-Cold War periods. In eight chapters, he discusses recruiting and minority midshipmen, the end of mandatory attendance at religious services, women's experiences as they sought and achieved admission and later served as midshipmen, and the responses of multiple generations of midshipmen to societal changes, particularly during the Vietnam War era. This cultural history not only sheds light on events at the Naval Academy but also offers a novel perspective on democratic ideals in the United States.

What really goes on behind the wall that surrounds the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis? What are all those midshipmen, future officers in the U.S. Naval and Marine Corps and leaders of our society, thinking as they stand in neat ranks at the parades beloved by tourists? What are their professors actually educating them to do. In Annapolis Autumn, Bruce Fleming, professor of English for nearly two decades at the academy and a prizewinning author, captures the sights, sounds, colors, and conversations of this tradition-steeped institution. In other classes, the cadets learn how to assemble guns, control armored vehicles, man battleships, and kill other human beings. Nothing is ever less than “outstanding, sir!” In English class, however, Fleming introduces his students to nuance and subtext, to the gay poets of World War I, and to the idea that not every piece of literature is designed to be “motivational.” Sharing stories from his twenty years at the academy, Fleming explores questions about teaching, the labels “liberal” and “conservative,” and the ultimate purpose of higher education—issues made all the more gripping at a time when many of his students will graduate from the classroom to the battlefield.

When Sharon Hanley Disher entered the U.S. Naval Academy with eighty other young women in 1976, she helped end a 131-year all-male tradition at Annapolis. Her entertaining and shocking account of the women's four-year effort to join the academy's elite fraternity and become commissioned naval officers is a valuable chronicle of the times, and her insights have been credited with helping us understand the challenges of integrating women into the military services. From the punishing crucible of plebe summer to the triumph of graduation, she describes their search for ways to survive the mental and physical hurdles they had to overcome. Unflinchingly frank, she freely discusses the prejudice and abuse they encountered that often went unpunished or unreported. A loyal Navy supporter, nevertheless, Disher provides a balanced account of life behind the academy's storied walls for that first group of teenaged women who charted the way for future female midshipmen. Lively, well researched, and amazingly good humored, the book seems as fresh today as it was when first published in hardcover in 1998.

This heavily illustrated book chronicles sailing's unique heritage at the Naval Academy from 1845 onward. It begins in the days of fighting sail, when the reputation of a naval officer depended principally on his ability to handle a square-rigged ship and when sailing was the central activity of the school. Sailing offers vivid descriptions of training aboard the grand old practice ships - Constitution, Constellation, and Macedonian - under master mariners like Stephen B. Luce, then moves to the 1930s, when some energetic midshipmen revived the sailing program by entering intercollegiate competition and offshore racing. By 1995 the program was the most popular midshipman activity; academy sailors won the Dinghy National Championship four times in five years and the top prize in the Newport-to-Bermuda Race - after fifty-four years of trying! Written by a well-known sailor and longtime ocean-racing coach at the Academy, the book is filled with dramatic stories of great races and adventurous cruising. And it records the history of the famous Luders yawls Fearless, Dandy, and Flirt, and the donated boats Vamarie, Highland Light, and Royono, among others, plus sixty years of intercollegiate small-boat racing. It also documents the academy's development of the Quick Stop man-overboard rescue maneuver and its Safety at Sea seminar program, both of which have been adopted nationwide. Admiral McNitt credits the contributions and support of the Fales Committee, the Naval Academy Sailing Squadron, and other civilian groups who have provided invaluable support over many years. Appendixes list Dinghy National Championship winners, midshipman All-American sailors, the performance of academy boats inthe Bermuda race, and members of the Fales Committee.

With a proud tradition reaching back to its founding in 1845, the United States Naval Academy today pursues its role as the nation’s premier institution dedicated to teaching and molding the naval leaders of tomorrow. Graduates of the academy include famous athletes, fleet commanders of the world wars, and astronauts. Great Americans like George Dewey, Chester W. Nimitz, and Alan B. Shepard are but a few of the many graduates whose contributions to the defense and dexterity of the United States are legendary. In stunning black-and-white photography, Historic Photos of United States Naval Academy tours the institution from its earliest days up to recent times, encapsulating its history in nearly 200 images from the storehouse of the academy, the Library of Congress, and other key archives. Through captions and essays, author James Cheevers does commendable work recounting the story of this unique school, pivotal to maintaining the nation’s naval supremacy on the seven seas.