This book examines the naval gunboat program pursued during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency--a program with disastrous effects on American naval strategy during the War of 1812. Ignoring the axiom that navies should be large enough and diverse enough not only to defend but to attack, Jefferson authorized the building of approximately 170 small gunboats rather than large seagoing vessels. Less than 70 feet in length and built for shallow water, gunboats had been employed by the United States since the Revolution. Often referred to as miserable, wretched, or useless by historians, gunboats have been criticized as unstable craft that could fight only on the calmest of seas. The author, however identifies both the positive and negative aspects of Jefferson’s gunboat program and points to the close alliances between politics and military policy that prompted Jefferson’s action.

In the third phase of the book, Wood examines expectations we bring to the theater: our focus on the body as the locus of our attention; and our understanding of the generic framework which orders our experience.

George Washington had Alexander Hamilton. Thomas Jefferson had Albert Gallatin. From internationally known tax expert and former Supreme Court law clerk Gregory May comes this long overdue biography of the remarkable immigrant who launched the fiscal policies that shaped the early Republic and the future of American politics. Not Alexander Hamilton---Albert Gallatin. To this day, the fight over fiscal policy lies at the center of American politics. Jefferson's champion in that fight was Albert Gallatin---a Swiss immigrant who served as Treasury Secretary for twelve years because he was the only man in Jefferson's party who understood finance well enough to reform Alexander Hamilton's system. A look at Gallatin's work---repealing internal taxes, restraining government spending, and repaying public debt---puts our current federal fiscal problems in perspective. The Jefferson Administration's enduring achievement was to contain the federal government by restraining its fiscal power. This was Gallatin's work. It set the pattern for federal finance until the Civil War, and it created a culture of fiscal responsibility that survived well into the twentieth century.

"The author presents an administrative and logistical history of the US Navy during the War of 1812. He explains how the naval department of the young republic managed to build, maintain, man, fit-out, provision, and send fighting ships out to sea for long periods of time, in addition to considering the problems faced by high command"--

Since its publication in 1960, The Jefferson Image in the American Mind has become a classic of historical scholarship. In it Merrill D. Peterson charts Thomas Jefferson's influence upon American thought and imagination since his death in 1826. Peterson shows how the public attitude toward Jefferson has always paralleled the political climate of the time; the complexities of the man, his thoughts, and his deeds being viewed only in fragments by later generations. He explains how the ideas of Jefferson have been distorted, defended, pilloried, or used by virtually every leading politician, historian, and intellectual. Through most of our history, political parties have engaged in an ideological tug-of-war to see who would wear "the mantle of Jefferson."

Although Jefferson feared the potential power of a standing army, the contributors point out he also contended that "whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace." They take a broad view of Jeffersonian security policy, exploring the ways in which West Point bolstered America's defenses against foreign aggression and domestic threats to the ideals of the American Revolution." "Thomas Jefferson's Military Academy should appeal to scholars and general readers interested in military history and the founding generation."--BOOK JACKET.

This collection of essays sets out to present a sample of the rich diversity of writings on naval history in this period. The collection covers subjects ranging from strategy, operations and tactics, to administration, technology and the maritime economy. Within this volume the reader will be able to see essays that influenced the development of modern naval history through to samples of some of the latest research.

The United States Navy evolved from an ill-formed collection of merchant vessels, privateers, and small frigates into the most capable maritime force in world history . The author employs an historical narrative that describes this evolution of American warships, technology, and force structure as opposed to the battles or tactics in which they engaged. He examines the history of the U.S. Navy from the perspective of the American people and their elected and appointed political leadership—the President, the Congress, the Secretaries of the Navy— and the captains, commodores, and admirals who carried out their directives, as well as the changing nature of the naval establishment, physical infrastructure, and human capital that constituted the industrial base in each era. The U.S. Navy is our nation's first line of defense, composed of the most capable aircraft carriers, surface ships, submarines and naval aircraft ever built. It represents an enormous investment of our nation's treasure, but is designed, built, and operates largely out of the public eye. Naval professionals and students of naval history should learn the forces that determine ‘how’ and ‘why’ we build the ships and aircraft we do, and their true value to the American taxpayer.

From the author of "Amphibious Warfare in the Eighteenth Century" and "The Evolution of the Sailing Navy, 1509-1815", this book serves as a single- volume survey of war at sea and the expansion of naval power in the 18th century. The book is intended for undergraduate courses on 18th century European history, and for amateur and professional military historians, and for navy colleges, and navy and ex-navy professionals.