HEROES OF ANNAPOLIS

This is annoyingly uneven -- some parts are excellent, others are scrappy and overcrowded with multitude of details, duplication and overlapping which demands more background than the average reader who will want the book would have. He starts with a hero of the Pacific War who has gone to Annapolis as a cadet. He then turns back the leaves of naval history, and tells the story of the Navy, of the leading personalities, of the progress of the Academy under successive leaders, of wars and the part played by the Navy, of the expansion of the Navy below and above the waters. The longer personality stories of such men as Porter, Farragut, Buchanan, Bob Evans, Michelsen, Wainwright, Isaacs -- these are excellent; good narrative, good history, good dialogue. It is when he attempts to cram too much into too little space that he gets confusing, and correspondingly dull. Let's hope that some of this will be smoothed out in final form, as the book has some exceedingly good content for today.