TUCKER, Spencer C. 1937-

PERSONAL: Born September 20, 1937, in Buffalo, NY; son of Cary S. (an army officer) and Elizabeth B. (a homemaker) Tucker; married Barbara Worcester, 1967 (divorced, 1974); married Beverly Blount (a psychotherapist), January 30, 1992. Education: Virginia Military Institute, B.A., 1959; attended University of Bordeaux, 1959-60; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, M.A., 1962, Ph.D., 1966. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Episcopalian. Hobbies and other interests: Collecting art.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of History, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA 24450. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, instructor in history, 1962-65; Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, instructor in history, 1965; University of Maryland at College Park, College Park, assistant professorial lecturer in history, 1966-67; Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, began as assistant professor, became associate professor, 1967-90, professor of history, 1990-97, department head, 1992-97; Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA, John Biggs Chair in Military History, 1997—. University of Maryland at College Park, assistant professorial lecturer, 1969-70. Smithsonian Institution, visiting research associate, 1969-70. Military analyst for television and radio programs. Military service: U.S. Army, Military Intelligence, 1965-67.

MEMBER: North American Society for Oceanic History, Society for Military History, U.S. Naval Institute, Nautical Research Guild, American Association of University Professors, Southwestern Social Science Association, Southern Historical Association (European Section), Phi Beta Delta.

AWARDS, HONORS: Fulbright fellow in France, 1959-60; Vice Admiral Edwin B. Hooper grant, Division of Naval History, Department of the Navy, 1988-89; John Lyman Book Awards, North American Society for Oceanic History, 1989, for Arming the Fleet, and 2000, for Andrew Foote: Civil War Admiral on Western Waters;Rear Admiral Ernest M. Eller Naval History Prize, 2000, for best article in naval history in 2000; Matthew Fontaine Maury Research Award, VMI, 2002.

WRITINGS:

Arming the Fleet: U.S. Naval Ordnance in the Muzzle-Loading Era, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1989.

The Jeffersonian Gunboat Navy, University of South Carolina Press (Columbia, SC), 1993.

(With Frank Reuter) Injured Honor: The Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, June 22, 1807, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1996.

Raphael Semmes and the Alabama, Ryan Place (Fort Worth, TX), 1996.

(With Edwin Olmstead and Wayne E. Stark) The BigGuns: Civil War Siege, Seacoast and Naval Cannon, Museum Restoration Service (Ottawa, ON, Canada), 1997.

The Great War, 1914-1918, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1998.

Vietnam, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1999.

Handbook of 19th Century Naval Warfare, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 2000.

Andrew Foote: Civil War Admiral on Western Waters, Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 2000.

Unconditional Surrender: The Capture of Forts Henry and Denelson, McWhiney Foundation Press (Abilene, TX), 2001.

Who's Who in Twentieth-Century Warfare, Routledge, 2001.

A Short History of the Civil War at Sea, Scholarly Resources (Wilmington, DE), 2002.

Encyclopedia of American Military History, three volumes, Facts on File (New York, NY), 2003.

Brigadier General John D. Imboden: ConfederateCommander in the Shenandoah, The University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 2003.

EDITOR

(And contributor) An Encyclopedia of the First WorldWar, Garland Publishing, 1994.

The European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia, Garland (New York, NY), 1996.

Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History, three volumes, ABC-CLIO (Santa Barbara, CA), 2000.

Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social and Military History, three volumes, ABC-CLIO (Santa Barbara, CA), 1998, abridged version, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Naval Warfare: An International Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO (Santa Barbara, CA), 2002.

Author of four book chapters and twenty-four articles. Contributor to anthologies; contributor of more than 350 book reviews.

SIDELIGHTS: Military historian Spencer Tucker is the author of books about conflicts ranging from the Civil War to Vietnam. His three-volume Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History was called "an ambitious undertaking" by Brian Coutts and John Richard of Library Journal. As the critics elaborated, the books attempt to "document and analyze every aspect" of the military action, with focus on America's involvement in the conflict. Coutts and Richard praised the work as a "monumental study" of the Vietnam War.

Tucker's next textbook series was titled The Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Like its Vietnam predecessor, the Korean War books take an A-Z approach to the conflict, "including a host of illustrations and a detailed time line," as a Booklist contributor noted. The reviewer added that along with the essential facts of the war, "topics such as African-Americans and the Korean War, McCarthyism, and Poetry of the Korean War are covered with thought-provoking articles." "Exhaustive" is how Library Journal's Mel Lane characterized Encyclopedia of the Korean War, commenting that the work "will be a core source of information on what is still called the 'Forgotten War.'"

In Tucker's Vietnam, the author tracks the military and social history of the nation before and after its civil war. In his review for History, Russell Allen thought that "several issues presented here deserve classroom debate, though the chief one is unresolved." Allen explained that the Vietnamese people were stuck in a quagmire between their own civil war and the influence of foreign powers on their nation. The war's outcome "was never certain," Allen said. "Why in the end one side did prevail is never stated in this book." Still, the reviewer recommended Vietnam as a complement to Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War and "a welcome textbook" in itself.

In 2002 Tucker saw the publication of A Short History of the Civil War at Sea, a study of the "blue water" aspects of America's nineteenth-century domestic conflict. Such innovations as the Dahlgren guns, iron-clad warships, and use of torpedoes came out of this chapter of naval history. In a Library Journal review, Kathleen Conley noted that the "expertise of the author"—Tucker is both a graduate of and a professor at the Virginia Military Institute—"is noticeably displayed in his sketches of eminent naval officers . . . and in his crisp discussion of significant battles."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February, 1995, review of The Jeffersonian Gunboat Navy, p. 231.

American Libraries, May, 1999, review of Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social and Military History, p. 72.

American Reference Books Annual, 1997, review of The European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia, p. 212; 1999, review of Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, p. 214.

Booklist, July, 1996, review of The European Powers in the First World War, p. 1843; November 15, 1998, review of Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, p. 787; October 15, 2000, review of Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History, p. 482.

Canadian Journal of History, April, 2000, Hubert Johnson, review of The Great War, 1914-1918, p. 157.

Choice, November, 1996, review of The EuropeanPowers in the First World War, p. 428; December, 1996, review of Injured Honor: The Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, June 22, 1807, p. 679; June, 1998, review of The Great War, 1914-1918, p. 1762,

English Historical Review, November, 1999, Brian Bond, review of The Great War, 1914-1918, p. 1361.

History, summer, 1999, Russell Allen, review of Vietnam, p. 180.

History Review, March, 1999, Vyvyen Brendon, review of The Great War, 1914-1918, p. 48.

International Migration Review, summer, 2001, Dennis Bixler-Marquez, review of Vietnam, p. 626.

Journal of Military History, January, 1997, review of Injured Honor, p. 163, review of The European Powers in the First World War, p. 174.

Journal of Southern History, February, 1995, review of The Jeffersonian Gunboat Navy, p. 131.

Library Journal, April 15, 1999, Brian Coutts and John Richard, review of Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, p. 56; June 15, 2000, Anthony Edmonds, review of Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, p. 68; October 1, 2000, Mel Lane, review of Encyclopedia of the Korean War, p. 82; February 1, 2002, Kathleen Conley, review of A Short History of the Civil War at Sea, p. 115.

Reference and Research Book News, September, 1996, review of The European Powers in the First World War, p. 8; February, 1999, review of Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, p. 31.

School Library Journal, November, 1996, review of The European Powers in the First World War, p. 139; February, 1999, review of Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, p. 140.

Times Literary Supplement, February 5, 1999, review of Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, p. 5.

Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 1996, review of The European Powers in the First World War, p. 299.