Society of gentlemen

Mark C. Hunter makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the evolution of professional standards in the U.S. armed forces with this social history of U.S. naval officer education at Annapolis. Combining statistical and scholarly analysis based on original research, he reveals that through the Naval Academy, the Navy in 1845 initiated a more structured form of education in order to assess potential officers on academic and practical seamanship skills. His findings show that by the 1850s the Academy had established summer cruises and school ships to teach navigation and command skills to recruits taken from civilian life. This study offers a detailed analysis of antebellum Naval Academy alumni, including their backgrounds and disciplinary records while students at Annapolis. Hunter enlivens this statistical data to provide insight into the personal lives of these young officers by drawing on the letters of midshipmen and the autobiographies of famous naval officers. --Book Jacket.