Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 4:00:40-4:01:11

Jets, missiles, and archive access bounded the book's Korean War coverage

A book-scope question explains that the transition into jets and missiles created a more complex subject while contemporary archive access imposed a practical research boundary.

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Question

Why did your book not extend further into battles and lessons from the Korean War?

Short answer

The jet-and-missile era made the subject more complex, and archive access at the time limited how far the research could responsibly go.

Notes

The book touched on Korea but did not extend deeply into its naval lessons. Moving into the jet and missile era would have broadened the technical and operational problem considerably. Access to the relevant archives was also limited when the research was undertaken. A historical work's endpoint can reflect a real change in the subject and the sources the author could responsibly examine at the time.