Thomas Sheppard is Assistant Professor of Military History at the Marine Corps University Command and Staff College in Quantico, Virginia. This interview is based on his book, Commanding Petty Despots: The American Navy in the New Republic (Naval Institute Press, 2022).
JF: What led you to write Commanding Petty Despots?
TS: The story of the early American navy has been told many times, but the emphasis is almost always on famous battles or the heroic exploits of officers. These are worthwhile – they are what first drew me to the subject! – but the story is incomplete. The focus of most literature assumes the existence of the U.S. Navy and the form it took; Commanding Petty Despots looks at the development of the U.S. Navy as an institution. It traces the structure and culture of the navy from its roots in the Revolutionary War through its firm establishment in the aftermath of the War of 1812. While the first generation of officers tended to put their own honor ahead of the good of the service – defying orders they considered beneath them and jeopardizing naval operations with petty personal disputes – by the early 1820s a firm commitment to civilian control permeated the naval officer corps.
JF: In 2 sentences, what is the argument of Commanding Petty Despots?
TS: In the earliest days of the American navy, civilian overseers accepted insubordinate behavior from officers who were zealous for defending the navy’s – and the nation’s – honor. As a new generation of naval officers rose up and the U.S. established itself on the international stage, a much stronger sense of subordination to civilian control became part of the navy’s identity.
JF: Why do we need to read Commanding Petty Despots?
TS: Civilian control of the military is a bedrock American value, one that remains unshaken even as the U.S. military has grown orders of magnitude beyond what the founding generation ever expected. This book shows the process for forging that commitment to civilian supremacy. Americans rightly celebrate the emergence of a navy capable of defending American interests on the seas, but an equally significant achievement was a navy operating as a unified service and led by officers entirely committed to their duty. Reading Commanding Petty Despots will give a better appreciation for the tumultuous early history of American sea power and the internal divisions that shaped the service.
JF: Why and when did you become an American historian?
TS: I was fascinated by history growing up, and when I arrived at college I settled on a history major fairly quickly. Whether a career in academia was for me took longer to decide (good thing I didn’t know anything about the job market at the time!). After a year working on my Masters, I visited Washington DC to do research at the Library of Congress in the summer of 2009. The first time I held 200-year old documents written by the very historical figures I was studying clinched it for me. I caught the history bug that summer and have never looked back.
JF: What is your next project?
TS: My next book will be a biography of Richard Dale, one of the early stars of the American navy. Dale began the Revolutionary War in the Virginia state navy, switched sides briefly and joined the British navy, then regretted it and came back to the American cause. His early waffling didn’t hurt him too much. He later served as John Paul Jones’s first lieutenant in the famous battle between the Bonhomme Richard and Serapis. Later, he became one of the first captains appointed by the Washington Administration. He represents one of the countless Revolutionaries whose stories get overlooked – those who wrestled with where they stood in the early days and never reached the heights of command achieved by a George Washington or John Paul Jones – but who were nevertheless pivotal in securing American independence.
JF: Thanks, Thomas!