George Dewey and the Rise of the “New Navy.”

Dr. Smith, Senior Lecturer in History at Baylor, gives us a very good biography of naval hero George Dewy, and uses it to help examine the history of the U.S. Navy from the eve of the Civil War through its massive expansion during the war, the doldrums of the immediate postwar decades, the rise of the “New Navy,” the war with Spain, and the subsequent emergence of the United States as a global power in the early twentieth century.

Smith covers in some detail Dewey’s background and life through his graduation from Annapolis in 1858, his impressive service during the Civil War, under Farragut and David Porter, his rise in the post-war Navy, a period of decline and then belated revival during which his varied experiences ashore and afloat helped him rise to the command of the Asiatic Squadron. There’s then a very good account of Dewey’s role in the war with Spain, his defeat of the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay, his dealing with Filipino leaders and a potentially hostile German admiral, and his role in convincing the U.S. to annex the Philippines, which he – and other senior officers – came to regret. Smith concludes with an account of Dewey’s role influencing the development of the U.S. fleet that was shortly to number among the largest in the world.

Smith write well. He touched on Dewey’s personal life, and at times gives us little anecdotes, some amusing and others more serious, that help us better understand Dewey’s personality and character; perhaps most notably his ultimately successful effort to secure admission to the U.S. of several Chinese personnel who had formed his shipboard household, despite legal obstacles.

Marred primarily by a surprising lack of maps, A New Force at Sea is an outstanding biography of George Dewey combined with a study of the origins of the modern U.S. Navy, from the Civil War through the early twentieth century.

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