How should readers approach Samuel Eliot Morison?

Do you have criticisms of naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison?

Yes; he remains valuable, but readers should recognize how his treatment of slavery and other issues reflects the assumptions of his era.

Morison was a good historian of his time, and his books remain useful. His treatment of slavery and related issues still requires criticism and context. The wider lesson is historiographic: a history often reveals as much about the period in which it was written as about the period it describes.