Background
Samuel Eliot Morison was born in Boston on July 9, 1887, into a prominent family with deep roots in the Massachusetts past.
(Telling the story of the greatest sailor of them all, "Ad...)
Telling the story of the greatest sailor of them all, "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" is a vivid and definitive biography of Columbus that details all of his voyages that, for better or worse, changed the world. 50 drawings, maps & charts; 4 fold-outs.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316584789/?tag=2022091-20
(A paper edition of Morison's rewrite (not a condensation)...)
A paper edition of Morison's rewrite (not a condensation) of his classic 15-volume History of the United States operations in World War II (cited in BCL3 ). The cloth edition was published in 1963. A fine scholar, Morison possesses a good deal of poet: of the glorious 4th of June, 1942 at the Battle of Midway he writes that the carrier Kaga "sank hissing into a 2600-fathom deep". A great history elegantly written. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316583529/?tag=2022091-20
(This fresh look at America's first sea warrior avoids bot...)
This fresh look at America's first sea warrior avoids both the hero worship of past biographies and the inaccurate and denigrating views of more recent accounts. Writing from the perspective of a naval officer with more than thirty years of experience and a seaman with a lifetime of sailing know-how, Callo examines Jones' extraordinary accomplishments by going beyond a narrow naval context to establish him as a key player in the American Revolution. He also analyzes his relationships with such civilian leaders as Benjamin Franklin. How Jones handled those often difficult dealings contributed to the nation's concept of civilian control of the military. The author also focuses on the fact that Jones was the first serving American naval officer who emphasized the role the Navy could play in the rise of the United States as a global power.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006AVVKW/?tag=2022091-20
(This is an abridgement of Samuel Morison's magnum opus, T...)
This is an abridgement of Samuel Morison's magnum opus, The European Discovery of America, in which he describes the early voyages that led to the discovery of the New World. All the acclaimed Morison touches are here - the meticulous research and authoritative scholarship, along with the personal and compelling narrative style that gives the reader the feeling of having been there. Morison, of course, has been there, and The Great Explorers is enriched with photographs and maps he made while personally retracing the great voyages.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195042220/?tag=2022091-20
(The Struggle for Guadacanal, August 1942-February 1943, V...)
The Struggle for Guadacanal, August 1942-February 1943, Volume 5 in the series, covers the six major engagements in the waters surrounding Guadalcanal, in which the U.S. Navy experienced more fighting than in any three previous wars. From the Solomon Islands campaign to the courageous actions of Edson's Raiders at the Battle of the Bloody Ridge and the Battle of Tassafaronga, the author describes events from the ship decks, cockpits, and ridgetops where the fate of thousands was decided.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591145511/?tag=2022091-20
(This one-volume history of Harvard is not so much a summa...)
This one-volume history of Harvard is not so much a summary of Professor Morison’s monumental work, of which two volumes remain to be written, as it is an entirely fresh handling of his vast material. With a mind saturated in the lore and tradition at his command, he has sat down to tell the whole story informally and briefly. Documentation and all the learned apparatus of scholarly research are therefore omitted; but the same genial humor, the same ability to see the human implications of past events, that characterize the larger work, are preserved in this. The result is a marvelously entertaining volume, the history of Harvard that everyone has been waiting for, a model of vitalized historical writing.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067488891X/?tag=2022091-20
Samuel Eliot Morison was born in Boston on July 9, 1887, into a prominent family with deep roots in the Massachusetts past.
He attended Harvard, obtaining his doctorate in 1912. There he derived the precept of history as a literary art. His dissertation, concerning Harrison Gray Otis, an ancestor whose papers were in Morison's attic, was sympathetic to the old Federalist.
In 1915 Morison joined the faculty at Harvard. His Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783-1860 (1921) earned him considerable fame. The book traced broad social and economic trends in Massachusetts up to the Civil War. While at Harvard he also served on the American Commission to Negotiate Peace between 1918 and 1919 and was one of the key individuals responsible for drafting the Versailles Treaty. Morison became the first Harmsworth professor of American history at Oxford in 1922, a position he held until his return to Harvard in 1925 to become Trumbull professor of American history. He retired from Harvard in 1955. Morison's interest in textbooks was evident in 1927, when his Oxford History of the United States appeared. This book became part of the base for The Growth of the American Republic, written in collaboration with Henry Steele Commager, which first appeared in 1930. It also served to point the way to The Oxford History of the American People (1964). In the 19306 Morison's attention moved toward the Puritans. Builders of the Bay Colony (1930), a collection of biographies, depicted the Puritans as human and fallible with primary religious motivation. He continued his defense of Puritanism with The Puritan Pronaos (1936) and in his institutional history of Harvard. In these works Morison claimed that Puritan thought was rich and sophisticated, that the Puritan had strong ties to England, and that Harvard reflected the social values of Puritan society. Morison retraced Columbus's voyages as commodore of the "Harvard Columbus Expedition" and turned this experience into Admiral of the Ocean Sea (2 vols. , 1942). This work won him a Pulitzer Prize. Morison then joined the Navy as historian and with his staff produced the monumental History of the United States Naval Operations in World War II (15 vols. , 1947 - 1962). After the war Morison wrote biographies of John Paul Jones, which also earned him a Pulitzer Prize, and Commodore Perry, as well as essays in which he attacked historical relativism. His H. G. Otis: Urbane Federalist (1969) marked a return to the subject of his doctoral dissertation. In The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages (1971) he describes the voyages up to the early 17th century. In 1964 Morison received the U. S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He remained an active proponent of history until his death in 1976.
(Telling the story of the greatest sailor of them all, "Ad...)
(This one-volume history of Harvard is not so much a summa...)
(This is an abridgement of Samuel Morison's magnum opus, T...)
(The Struggle for Guadacanal, August 1942-February 1943, V...)
(This fresh look at America's first sea warrior avoids bot...)
(A paper edition of Morison's rewrite (not a condensation)...)
(A collective view of American life from the original nati...)
Quotations:
"Make no mistake; the American Revolution was not fought to obtain freedom, but to preserve the liberties that Americans already had as colonials. Independence was no conscious goal, secretly nurtured in cellar or jungle by bearded conspirators, but a reluctant last resort, to preserve "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. ""
"America was discovered accidentally by a great seaman who was looking for something else; when discovered it was not wanted; and most of the exploration for the next fifty years was done in the hope of getting through or around it. America was named after a man who discovered no part of the New World. History is like that, very chancy. "
"If the American Revolution had produced nothing but the Declaration of Independence, it would have been worthwhile. "
"But sea power has never led to despotism. The nations that have enjoyed sea power even for a brief period-Athens, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, England, the United States-are those that have preserved freedom for themselves and have given it to others. Of the despotism to which unrestrained military power leads we have plenty of examples from Alexander to Mao. "
Morison's first marriage to Elizabeth S. Greene produced four children-one of whom, Emily Morison Beck, became editor of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Elizabeth died August 20, 1945. In 1949, Morison married Baltimore widow Priscilla Barton. Priscilla died February 22, 1973.