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By Jim Barber Publisher
February 1994
Naval History
Volume 8 Number 1
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In our effort to provide the best in historical literature, we went outside our customary stable of contributors for a change. History enthusiasts should recognize several names in this issue.

We begin with television personality and winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, David McCullough. He talks about what naval history means to him—and what it should mean to all Americans.

Next, the winner of the Fletcher Platt award for Landscape Turned Red—his book on the Battle of Antietam—Civil War historian Stephen W. Sears retraces the final weeks of the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia and what happened to her after her encounter with the USS Monitor at Hampton Roads.

Added to our list of well-known historians is Dr. Jurgen Rohwer, an old friend of the U.S. Naval Institute, who graces our pages with the story of his experiences on board a German “mine destructor vessel,” which busied herself keeping German shipping lanes free of Allied mines in World War II.

Jim Barber Publisher

CAPT James A. Barber Jr., USN (Ret.) (1934–2017), served thirty years as a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy before retiring as a captain. His assignments included three commands at sea: a guided-missile cruiser, a guided-missile frigate, and a destroyer escort. Other assignments included special sea detail officer of the deck of an aircraft carrier, senior watch officer of a destroyer, executive officer of a destroyer, and qualification as a convoy commodore. In 1984 he was appointed CEO and publisher of the U.S. Naval Institute, a position he held for fifteen years.↵ Captain Barber earned a PhD at Stanford University and taught at Vanderbilt, the Naval War College, and George Washington University. His awards include the Navy League’s Alfred Thayer Mahan Award, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star with combat “V,” the Meritorious Service Medal with gold star, and six awards of the Vietnam Service Medal. In 1999 he was presented with the U.S. Coast Guard’s Meritorious Public Service Award, and in 2000 with the Navy’s highest civilian award, the Distinguished Public Service Award. He published two other books, including The Military and American Society: Essays and Readings, co-edited with Stephen Ambrose.

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