Review: Frigates and Foremasts
| Author | Nicholas Tracy |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200405900224 |
| Published date | 01 June 2004 |
| Date | 01 June 2004 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
appeared
to
triumph
in
1947
with
construction
of
Eielson
Air
Force
Base
(the
largest in
the
world)
in
the
interior
near Fairbanks
and
not
in
the
wind-swept
and
fog-blanketed
Aleutians.
Together
with
Elmendorf
Air
Force
Base
(constructed
as
an
army
air
base
during
World
War
II),
Alaska,
at
the
very least,
was
well
on
its
way
to
becom-
ing
what
Mitchell
called
the
central
place
in
the
world
for
aircraft.
If
the
announced
goal
of
containing
Soviet
expansion
in
the
Pacific
Rim
was
more
modest
than
the
ones
proposed
by
Seward,
Mahan
and
Mitchell,
it
at
least
gave
Alaska
a
strategic
purpose.
That
purpose,
of
course,
evaporated
in
1991
with
the
Soviet collapse,
and
Alaska
and
its
Aleutians
returned
to
their
strategic
fate
as
stepping
stones to
nowhere.
Perras
is
concerned
with
Alaska's
role in
World
War
iI
and
not
the
Cold
War.
He
centres
on military
politics,
Canada's
role
in
the
North
Pacific
war,
and
proposals to
use
the
Aleutians
as
a
staging
area
for
an
invasion
of
the
Kuriles
and
perhaps
even
the
Japanese
home
islands
themselves.
It
might
be
argued
that
there
is
little
point
to
any
of
this.
Intricacies
about
military
politics
concerning
the
United
States
and
an
ally
regarding
an
aborted
theatre
and an
equally
aborted
strategy
seem
rather
shallow.
But
such reasoning
misses Perras's
larger
purpose
of
pre-
senting
his
story
within
the context
of
strategic
megalomania.
Those
who
dream
of
empire
will
be
tempted
by
Alaska for
as
long
as
there
are
maps
depicting
the Aleutians
hanging
over
the
North
Pacific
(or
what
is
more
lately referred
to
as
the
Pacific
Rim)-a
place
from
which the
colonial
mind
can
imagine
power being
projected
and
worlds
ruled.
Kenneth O'Reilly/University
of
Alaska,
Anchorage
FRIGATES
AND
FOREMASTS
The
North
American
Squadron
in
Nova Scotia
Waters,
1745-1815
Julian
Gwyn
Vancouver;
UBC
Press,
2003.
xiv,
206 pp, $75.00
cloth
(ISBN
0-7748-
0910-8),
$27.95 paper
(ISBN
0-7748-0911-6)
T
he
basis
of
all
naval
history is
expressed
in
three
aphorisms
coined
by
successive
historians:
that
war
is
a
continuation
of
policy
by
other
means;
that
the
sea
is
one
arena
for such
conflict;
and
that
the
sea
may
be
likened
to
a
great
highway.
If
a
special
study
is to
be
made
of
the
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Spring2004
475
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