American Admiralship: The Moral Imperatives of Naval Command

American Admiralship: The Moral Imperatives of Naval Command. By Edgar F. Puryear, Jr. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2005. ISBN 159114-699-2. Notes. Index. Pp. xviii, 647. 836.95.

A lecturer and well-known author of books on generalship in the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, Edgar Puryear turns his attention in this book to the accepted ideas of leadership in the U.S. Navy. Using as a foundation what he had learned from other services, Puryear approaches this subject by examining the standard published biographies of the best-known American admirals of World War II-Ernest J. King, Chester W. Nimitz, William F. Halsey, and Raymond A. Spruanec-along with key Cold War leaders such as admirals Arleigh Burke and Hyman Rickover.

With this basis in the literature, he expands his study with the insights of the leading American flag officers of recent decades, utilizing...