USNI Sale 2024

Books from the Naval Institute Press are the backbone of Naval Gazing, and every year they run a major sale in November and December, the best time of the year to build out a naval library. Unfortunately, this year's sale is significantly worse than previous years, with no free shipping and the half-off only applying to a selected set of books, which you will need to use the code HOLIDAY at checkout to get. But that's still a lot of the stuff you would want, and it's as good a time as any to take a look at their catalog and see what they have available. Note that if you decide to venture off the Holiday and Clearance lists, there's a substantial discount for being a USNI member, and the $42/year web membership can pay for itself pretty quickly.

First, there are new releases in the past year, all of which I think should be in the holiday sale. Highlights are the 2025 Seaforth World Naval Review, by far the best publication if you want an up-to-date state of the world's navy, Aircraft of the Royal Navy since 1908, by David Hobbs, the leading expert on RN aviation, Jellicoe's War by Nicholas Jellicoe (grandson of the Admiral and a nice guy) about John Jellicoe's time as First Sea Lord, a new book on the RN in the Cold War, The Origins of Aegis, about the weapons system that has proved itself in the last year and a new technical book on the British Fiji class. Also worth noting is a reissue of D.K. Brown's classic Rebuilding the Royal Navy.

In terms of older stuff still in the catalog and worth buying, there is as always a lot of Friedman. The obvious place to start is his Illustrated Design History series, the absolute standard for USN warships, all of which are on the Holiday list. There's a lot of his British warship books available, too, mostly in the $20-30 range in Clear the Decks, including British (Dreadnought) Battleships, British Victorian Battleships, British Cruisers of the 20th century, British Cruisers of the 19th century, British Destroyers and Frigates and British Submarines in the World Wars. Outside of warship design work, I would recommend both Fighting the Great War at Sea, an excellent look at WWI afloat (although be aware that you're going to get a lot of strategy and technology and very little in the way of battle narrative) and the Fifty Year War, the best single-volume history of the Cold War I'm aware of, both of which are on the sale rack.

Other highlights include Stephen McLaughlin's excellent Russian and Soviet Battleships, the basis for my series on that topic and fully the equal of Friedman's work, D.K. Brown's Before the Ironclad and Atlantic Escorts, both written by a naval architect who brings a unique view of the subject, Brian Lavery's Two Navies Divided, probably the best single-volume overview of the USN and RN as organizations in WWII, and the 14-volume set of Samuel Eliot Morison's History of US Naval Operations in World War II. For those whose interests are more recent, there's China As A 21st Century Naval Power, a deep look at the PLAN's development, and past volumes of Seaforth World Naval Review, as there's substantial new content each year. I will also mostly endorse Drachinifel's reading list, although there are a few on there I don't have or didn't particularly like.

And make sure to check out their "Clear the Decks" sale section, which has a ton of great stuff, much for $10-20. Particular highlights here are Nicholas Jellicoe's Jutland - The Unfinished Battle, the basis for my Jutland series, and David Hobb's A Century of Carrier Aviation, but you should go through and see if there's anything that interests you.