Proud New Flags Author:F. van Wyck Mason . . . Mason tells a good story against a convincingly authentic background- that of Baltimore to New Orleans on the verge of the Civil War, and the sympathies here are enlisted with the main characters on the side of the South. The chief value of the book lies in the immensely detailed and little known picture of the efforts of the South to buil... more »d a navy, efforts which were blocked by bungling self-seekers, incompetent politicians and the struggle for separate commands. Brunton, Scottish shipbuilder, Sam Seymour of the U.S.N. who resigns his commission to serve his native South, his austere elder brother, an engineer, who goes to Richmond to make his contribution,- these three live in the intricate story of the Navy's birth and death. The women are less successful- the love stories unsatisfactory in their denouements. Read as history, this is a rewarding experience and is the first in a projected tetralogy. Sure sales and rentals. --Kirkus Reviews Copyright (c) VNU Business Media, Inc.« less