The book can be read by any level of readers, may be considered a initiator for the junior logistics managers, while senior managers may use it to update their knowledge with the recent developments in logistics. The book gives good inside about establishing the logistics criteria (K.P.I.s) as well as being a good reference for researchers. It has sufficient amount of statistical data supporting the information provided and the results are integrated with the subjects neatly. I have enjoyed reading it, and found it quite useful for my research and company project.

Rodgers takes up the story of Naval tactics and ship design in the 4th century CE and goes to the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The diagrams and maps are helplful is showing the changes is the design of ships over time.

If you have read Rodgers other book "Greek and Roman Naval Warfare" I highly recomend this book. It gives good detail of the campaigns of Belisarius and narses in the Reconquest under Justinian. The naval engagements of the Middle Ages are covered along with the exploits of the Vikings.

The narrative is easily to follow even though every now and ten it gets a bit drawn out. Anyone interested the history of naval combat should read this very valuable book.

The first book was outstanding, and this is alos very good. Rodgers covers a wide variety of topis well and in an interesting way. He has the depth of knowledge to know whats important and explains these points.

Jay Slagle has done an excellent job of detailing S. Ledyard Phelps' career in the Navy and on the Mississippi. Unfortunately, the work appears to be biased in favor of the author's family connection with the subject. Notably, Phelps's relations with the rest of the officers of the Western Gunboat Flotilla are obviously skewed in favor of Phelps... Henry Walke of the Carondelet is portrayed in a decidedly poor light, while the highly controversial William D. "Dirty Bill" Porter is seen to be almost heroic. A potentially fine biography is partially sabotaged by the author's obvious sympathy for his ancestor.

Jay Slagle has produced a book that offers so much. It gives the reader a real feel of what life was like for a young officer in the pre-Civil War Navy and how the development of the sectional conflict was perceived. This book is also one of the best accounts of the Western Flotilla/Mississippi Squadron that I have read. I couldn't put it down for two weeks. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the naval events of the Civil War or life in 19th-century America..

I believe that Mr. Slagle is to be commended for the very detailed accurate research that went into this fine histoical account of naval history on inland waters during the War Between The States. After reading this book you will have a better understanding of the use of naval forces to short- en this conflict.

An interesting book when it comes to sailing, although the author has no knowledge of the sea and the terrain of Ancient Greece and Italy. Avoid it if you are interested in naval history and naval warfare. Living in these lands makes this book look like an anti Greek propaganda.

Calling Herodotus, the father of history, "inaccurate" and "a person who wrote tales" is considered among the historians of any time equal to blasphemy. Altering historical facts, and creating conclusions based upon imagination and modern standards is not only a crime against the memory of the ancient Greeks but also a crime against humanity. Never before have I read a book written about ancient Greece, that is so much against anything Greek. It is for sure the first time that I read that Leonidas, the 300 Spartans and the 2,000 Greeks who were sacrificed for preserving the democracy and freedom of ancient Europe in Thermopiles, where just a few cowards that withdrew in the face of the enemy surrounding them. It is crazy even to consider that the same soldiers who were fighting for six (and not two as the author states) days against 500,000 soldiers got scared and betrayed their fellow fighters and fled living the back of the Spartans open.
The strategic conclusions made on this book are completely inaccurate, since the author never visited neither Greece nor Rome. Reading the book up to page 106 when the Persian wars were concluded the author does not manage to make a single correct remark as he is totally ignorant of Greek geography and morphology, and most of all Greek way of leaving and thinking.
I was never before so disappointed from buying a book as much as I did when I bought and tried to read: Greek and Roman Naval Warfare; A Study of Strategy, Tactics, and Ship Design from Salamis (480 B.C. to Actium) by William Ledyard Rodgers

It has it's limitations in that it almost entirely relies upon ancient sources for it's conclusions, and not much on Archaeology or [obviously] modern scholarship.

It's age is one of it's virtues, however. It was written at a time when Classical scholarship was much less specialized and narrow, and allowed for a more general and sweeping overview of a fascinating and immensely important subject.

I disagree with one reviewer's complaints about Rodgers' criticism of Herodotus. He was, in many ways, a purveyor of legends and fanciful tall tales. Especially when you compare his historical skills to the great Greek historians who came later such as Thyucidides and Polybius. And thank God for Both Thyucidides and Polybius. Especially Thyucidides who is our most reliable ancient source for Classical Greek naval tactics. [Along with Xenophon].

And without Polybius, we would have almost no reliable record [other than the often suspect Diodorus]of the very overlooked, but immensely important and history changing First Punic War. Arguably, the First Punic War was the most important war in Western history because, as a result of it's occurrnce, Rome became the most powerful naval power in the Mediterranean by defeating one of the most powerful Hellenistic naval powers of the time, Carthage, on it's own turf. Thus, setting the stage for all of Rome's future expansion.

This is a great book to start with, if you are interested in Ancient Mediterranean naval warfare. And it's written by a person in a position to know and understand the practicalities of what the ancient sources have reported. Another lost tradition of modern scholarship. It's better to have a well-written and reserached general overview of ancient naval warfare written by an Admiral, than it is, sometimes, to have a narrow treatise written by an academic sitting in a dusty cubicle.

At least that's my opinion.