When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, the United States and NATO were losing the Cold War. The USSR had superiority in conventional weapons and manpower in Europe, and had embarked on a construction programme to gain naval pre-eminence. But Reagan had a plan. Reagan pushed Congress to build the navy back to its 1945 strength. He gathered a circle of experienced naval planners, including the author, to devise an aggressive strategy. New radars, sensors and emissions technology would make ghosts of US submarines and surface fleets. They would operate aircraft carriers in Arctic waters which no navy had attempted. The Soviets, surrounded by their forward naval strategy, bankrupted their economy trying to keep pace. It wasn't long before the Berlin Wall fell and the USSR was disbanded.

When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, the United States and NATO were losing the Cold War. The USSR had superiority in conventional weapons and manpower in Europe, and had embarked on a construction programme to gain naval pre-eminence. But Reagan had a plan. Reagan pushed Congress to build the navy back to its 1945 strength. He gathered a circle of experienced naval planners, including the author, to devise an aggressive strategy. New radars, sensors and emissions technology would make ghosts of US submarines and surface fleets. They would operate aircraft carriers in Arctic waters which no navy had attempted. The Soviets, surrounded by their forward naval strategy, bankrupted their economy trying to keep pace. It wasn't long before the Berlin Wall fell and the USSR was disbanded.

By now the world knows well the exploits of World War II admirals Ernest King, Chester Nimitz, and "Bull" Halsey. These brilliant strategists and combat commanders--backed by a powerful Allied coalition, a nation united, gifted civilian leaders, and abundant war-making resources--led U.S. and allied naval forces to victory against the Axis powers. Leadership during the Vietnam War was another story. The Vietnam War and its aftermath sorely tested the professional skill of four-star admirals Harry D. Felt, Ulysses S. Grant Sharp, Thomas H. Moorer, Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., and James L. Holloway III. Unlike their World War II predecessors, these equally battle-tested leaders had to cope with a flawed American understanding of U.S. and Vietnamese Communist strengths and weaknesses, distrustful and ill-focused Washington leaders, an increasingly discontented American populace, and an ultimately failing war effort. Like millions of other Americans, these five admirals had to come to terms with America's first lost war, and what that loss meant for the future of the nation and the U.S. armed forces. The challenges were both internal and external. A destabilized U.S. Navy was troubled by racial discord, drug abuse, anti-war and anti-establishment sentiment, and a host of personnel and material ills. At the same time, increasingly serious global threats to US interests, such as the rise of Soviet nuclear-missile and naval power, were shaping confrontations on the postwar stage. Critical to the story is how these naval leaders managed their relationships with Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter, and Secretaries of Defense McNamara, Laird, and Schlesinger. Based on prodigious research into many formerly classified sources, Edward J. Marolda relates in dramatic detail how America's top naval leaders tackled their responsibilities, their successes, and their failures. This is a story of dedication to duty, professionalism, and service by America's top admirals during a time of great national and international adversity.

Renowned fiddler and composer Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, his musical partner and wife, have run the Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camp in upstate New York for many years. Jay wrote "Ashokan Farewell" in 1982 at the camp season's end, to express the sense of loss he felt after the departure of the musical community. The melodys sweet, haunting sadness proved to be a perfect match for Ken Burns's 1990 PBS series "The Civil War," which introduced it to millions of viewers. In this guitar arrangement, the bass line enters as an ascending response to the melody, which is then harmonized in sixths and thirds the second time through. The arrangement is a good study in position shifting up and down the fingerboard, and provides a great showcase for dynamic and tonal nuance in the phrasing of the melody. It is an excellent concert selection and will be a popular addition to the repertoire of any fingerstyle player, on either steel- or nylon-string guitar.

In On Seas of Glory, the U.S. Navy meets a storyteller worthy of its noble history. Former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman gives a sweeping narrative of the service's illustrious past, from the Revolutionary War to the present day, filled with the ships that dominated the seas, equally titanic personalities, and the battles that made history.

Lehman profiles naval greats from John Paul Jones to William "Bull" Halsey, as well as the lesser-known sailors who have made the U.S. Navy the mightiest in the world, using diaries, memoirs, and letters to reveal naval combat as though firsthand. He also highlights the warships that have dominated the seas of their day and the battles in which they fought -- illustrated by detailed maps, woodcuts, paintings, and never-before-published photographs.

With this chronicle of selfless sacrifice and awesome courage on the war-swept seas around the world, Lehman reminds us that the legends chronicled in these pages were real men and women, that the navy they fought for still sails, and that today their heroism is needed more than ever.