A Society of Gentlemen: Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, 1845-1861

Mark C. Hunter contributes significantly to the debate about professionalization 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 to assess potential officers on academic and practical seamanship skills. His findings show that by the 1850s, the Academy established summer cruises and school ships to teach navigation and command skills to recruits taken from civilian life.
The study offers the first analysis of antebellum Naval Academy alumni, including their backgrounds and disciplinary records while students at Annapolis. To expand upon statistical data, Hunter gained personal insight from midshipmen’s letters and the autobiographies of famous naval officers.
AUTHOR Mark C. Hunter is a maritime and naval historian with a Ph.D. from the University of Hull, United Kingdom, and is author of To Employ and Uplift Them and Policing the Seas ILLUSTRATIONS 14 b/w photos