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Article: Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage, and Patriotism in the Early U.S. Navy.(Book review)
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- June 22, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage, and Patriotism in the Early U.S. Navy. By David Curtis Skaggs. (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2006. Pp. xxi, 301. $34.95.)
Before this biography of Oliver Hazard Perry, the author of this study wrote a first-rate book about Perry's colleague, Thomas Macdonough. If Perry is the better known, it is largely because of his summation of the American naval victory on Lake Erie during the War of 1812: "We have met the enemy and they are ours..." David Curtis Skaggs suggests that Perry's terse victory message rivals Caesar's "Veni, vidi, vici"--although without its irresistible alliteration (118).
But as the author ...