Military history

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, October 2009; written by Lisa Pearson.

Libraries in the digital age have all sorts of high-tech ways to monitor their collections. Here at the Ketchikan Public Library we can count how many books we check out per hour, per week, and per month. We can calculate the average age of the collection, or count how many books we have that were published in the 1970’s. We can put together spreadsheets, graphs and piecharts to track patron interest and the growing demand for library materials. But one of the simplest ways to see what people like to read is to walk up and down the aisles. The more untidy a shelf is, the more people have been browsing through it.

In our library, the history section is often one of the messiest in the library (we do try to go through on a regular basis and straighten things up, but some weeks we have more time to be neat than others). Lost within the dozens and dozens of books on the American Revolution, the Civil War and World War II are some wonderful books dealing with America’s more low-profile conflicts. Here are a few, in chronological order by conflict.

“The war that made America” by Fred Anderson is an overview of the French and Indian War (1754-1760), which was really an extension of the Seven Years’ War that raged throughout Europe. The North American front involved Britain and France, each joined by various Native American nations, and the battles ranged from West Virginia to Nova Scotia. Anderson does a good job of introducing the reader to the political climate that existed before the war, not just between the British and French colonists, but also between the settlers and the indigenous people. The book is well-supplied with maps, reproductions of documents and portraits (it’s always nice to be able to attach a face to a name). As an added bonus, you can check out the companion documentary DVD that aired on PBS. For those of you who like more of a biographical touch to their history, try “War on the run: the epic story of Robert Rogers and the conquest of America's first frontier” by John F. Ross.

If we go forward in time a couple of generations, we have the War of 1812. “Union 1812: the Americans who fought the second war of independence” by A. J. Langguth is not so much an overview of the war, but is rather a collection of short biographies. From the fiery Andrew Jackson, to the quick-thinking Dolly Madison to the stately dignity of the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, Langguth brings to life some of the American players in the young nation’s battle against powerful Great Britain. The author also focuses on a few of the more important aspects of the conflict, including the Battle of New Orleans, the Treaty of Ghent, and the hugely unpopular embargo against British goods. (One of the things I remember from U.S. History class is a political cartoon from the time, with a turtle named Ograbme nipping the backside of a merchant smuggler).

We were a pretty feisty nation at the beginning of the 19th century, and not long after the end of the War of 1812, President James Madison sent a fleet of ships to North Africa to protect American ships from piracy. Frederick C. Leiner recounts this effort in “The end of Barbary terror: America’s 1815 war against the pirates of North Africa”. This was actually the second naval campaign the United States launched against the Barbary States, the first conflict in 1805 being immortalized in the U.S. Marine Corps’ anthem (“to the shores of Tripoli”). Well-researched and nicely detailed, this book would also interest fans of Patrick O’Brian and C.S. Forester.

“Manila and Santiago: the new steel navy in the Spanish-American war”, by Jim Leeke, is a blend of military history and naval history. Leeke looks at the personalities of the commanders, the major naval battles fought in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and the role of military technology. He points out that the 1898 Spanish-American war was the first real testing ground for America’s steel Navy, and it also established an American foothold in the Pacific that was to prove important in World War II.

This brief selection of books only scratches the surface of our history collection, which encompasses the political, social and military history of nations and empires from every corner of the earth. From the dynasties of Egypt to the colonization of Australia to the recent conflicts in Southeast Asia, you can cover a lot of ground between the covers of a book.