Relevant Academic Journals!!! (Somewhat Dated)

Combing J-STOR (see library link: electronic references) I found two scholarly book reviews that are actually relevant to our studies (sounds of shock and amazement), even if they are half a century old. The first is a review of Forester's book Age of Fighting Sail, the second is a review of someone else's book by Forester himself. Those who have wanted to read The General as a "Guidebook" will find both of these short reviews interesting. The Questions I have after reading them:
1. Was the omission of references merely due to the publishers frugality?(Or was it purposefull on Forester's Part?)
2. Is it "horrid" to believe that "there is some superiority in sending a narrative into the world as naked as a new born babe" as Whitehill suggests? (What would be Forester's possible reaction to this statement?)
3. How much value does Forester place on narative skill (given the views expressed in his review)?
So here is the review of Forester:
The Age of Fighting Sail: The Story of the Naval War of 1812. By C.S. Forester. (Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1956. Pp. 284. $5.00)
The spectacular frigate actions of the early stages of the War of 1812 have become so much a part of the American legend that they have obscured from the popular mind the defeats and disasters. Most children have heard of the Constitution and Guerriere, few adults know anything of the effective British blockade that silently disrupted New England commerce and, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, “inflicted a direct material loss to the American people a hundredfold greater than the entire American navy was able to inflict on Great Britain from the beginning to the end of its gallant career in the war.” There is, therefore, usefulness in having a new popular account of that war that will, because of the distinction of its author, appeal to an audience that would hardly find its way to the works of Mahan and Henry Adams. Devotees of Horatio Hornblower—including sailors like the late Fleet Admiral King—have for years eagerly devoured each new piece of Mr. Forester’s fiction. They, and many others, will find his excursion into history absorbing, exciting, and instructive. Readers of this Quarterly cannot but regret that a narrative of this kind, which would inspire further investigation of the subject, should be published without a single note or reference. That this defect was due to the publisher’s economy rather than the author’s choice is suggested by the complete absence of illustrations. There is not a picture of a ship or a track of an action in the entire book. The only concessions to geography are a pair of end-paper maps, decorative enough but entirely inadequate for following the movements of ships and squadrons.
We all know that printing costs are high; that illustrations, notes and bibliographies cost money, and that publishers consequently try to get away with omitting as many of these valuable elements as they can. Messrs. Doubleday, in a jacket blurb, describe the Mainstream of America series, of which The Age of Fighting Sail is the sixth volume, as “a distinguished series of histories presented in terms of people and in the exciting form of a narrative.” These words contain, at least to this reviewer, the horrid plying that there is some superiority in sending a narrative into the world as naked as a newborn babe. Such masters of English prose as the late Sir James Frazer, Sir Winston Churchill, and Samuel Eliot Morison have conclusively proved that an exciting narrative never suffers from being adequately clothed in the useful and seemly garb of scholarly documentation. The reader is free to pay no attention to such notes and appendices if he chooses, but if he wishes to take full advantage of the author’s learning he will find them an extraordinary help.
Boston Athenaeum Walter Muir Whitehill

If you want to read Forester's review, log onto J-STOR through the library. Here are both citations:
The Age of Fighting Sail: The Story of the Naval War of 1812
C. S. Forester
Review author[s]: Walter Muir Whitehill
The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 14, No. 1. (Jan., 1957), pp. 106-107. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0043-5597%28195701%293%3A14%3A1%3C106%3ATAOFST%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9

Battle Report-Pearl Harbor to Coral Sea.
Walter Karig
Review author[s]: C. S. Forester
Pacific Affairs, Vol. 18, No. 3. (Sep., 1945), pp. 288-291.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0030-851X%28194509%2918%3A3%3C288%3ABRHTCS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S