# Bibliography of early American naval history
**Wikidata**: [Q4903414](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4903414)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliography_of_early_United_States_naval_history)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/bibliography-of-early-american-naval-history

## Summary
Bibliography of early American naval history is a specialized reference work that systematically catalogs and documents books, articles, and other publications related to the naval history of the United States from its colonial origins through the early republic period. As an instance of bibliography as an academic discipline, it represents the application of bibliographical methods to organize and make accessible the scholarly literature on early American naval development, conflicts, and maritime operations.

## Key Facts
- **Classification:** Subclass of information science; part of library science
- **Dewey Decimal Classification:** 010 (Bibliography)
- **Entity Type:** Bibliography (compiled list of publications)
- **Subject Focus:** Early United States naval history
- **Practitioner:** Bibliographer (person who creates and maintains such works)
- **Core Output:** Bibliographic record (systematic documentation of publications)
- **Related Field:** Incunabula (study of early printed works, though this specific bibliography likely covers later periods)
- **Sitelink Count:** 1

## FAQs
### Q: What is Bibliography of early American naval history?
A: It is a specialized bibliography—a systematically organized list of publications—that documents books, articles, and other materials related to the naval history of early America, covering topics such as the Continental Navy, the Quasi-War with France, the First Barbary War, and the War of 1812.

### Q: How does this bibliography relate to the academic discipline of bibliography?
A: As an instance of bibliography, it applies the discipline's systematic methods of describing, cataloging, and classifying publications to the specific subject of early American naval history, drawing on principles from descriptive bibliography, textual bibliography, and critical bibliography.

### Q: What purpose does a bibliography on early American naval history serve?
A: It provides researchers, historians, students, and maritime enthusiasts with a comprehensive, organized reference tool to discover and verify sources on early American naval history, making the vast literature on this topic accessible and navigable.

### Q: Who would use this bibliography?
A: Academic researchers studying American military history, naval historians, graduate students writing dissertations on maritime affairs, librarians curating special collections, and amateur historians with interest in early American naval conflicts would all utilize this resource.

### Q: How is such a bibliography organized?
A: Bibliographies of this nature are typically organized by theme, chronology, or type of source (books vs. articles vs. manuscripts), and include descriptive information such as author, title, publication date, publisher, and subject headings to facilitate retrieval.

## Why It Matters
Bibliography of early American naval history matters because it provides the intellectual infrastructure for serious scholarship on America's maritime military heritage. Without systematic bibliographies, researchers would struggle to locate relevant sources scattered across hundreds of journals, archives, and book catalogs. The discipline of bibliography, founded by Paul Otlet, established the theoretical framework that makes such specialized reference works possible.

Early American naval history represents a critical yet sometimes overlooked aspect of the nation's development. From the Revolutionary War's naval engagements through the formative conflicts that established the U.S. Navy's reputation, this history shaped American strategic thinking and international standing. A dedicated bibliography ensures that scholars can properly contextualize these events, verify primary sources, and build upon existing scholarship.

The significance extends beyond mere convenience—bibliographies like this one enable reproducibility in historical research. When scholars can trace exactly what sources informed a work, the entire field benefits from increased rigor and the ability to build confidently on prior findings. For a discipline like history, where primary source verification is paramount, such tools are foundational.

Furthermore, specialized bibliographies help preserve institutional knowledge. They capture and organize disparate publications that might otherwise become lost to future researchers, ensuring that the historical record remains accessible across generations.

## Notable For
- **Specialized Subject Focus:** Dedicated exclusively to early American naval history rather than general American history
- **Systematic Documentation:** Applies rigorous bibliographical methods to organize publications on a specific historical topic
- **Research Infrastructure:** Serves as a foundational tool for academic inquiry into early U.S. naval operations and maritime conflicts
- **Knowledge Organization:** Represents the practical application of bibliography (010 in Dewey Decimal Classification) to a specialized historical field
- **Scholarly Gateway:** Functions as an essential access point for researchers seeking to navigate the literature on early American naval affairs

## Body

### Definition and Nature
Bibliography of early American naval history is a specialized bibliographic work that falls under the broader academic discipline of bibliography. As defined in the source material, bibliography is "the academic discipline that studies books as physical objects and the systematic listing of publications." This particular bibliography applies those principles to the specific domain of early United States naval history—a field encompassing the Continental Navy of the Revolutionary era, the formation of the permanent U.S. Navy in the 1790s, and the naval conflicts of the early nineteenth century including the Quasi-War (1798-1800), the First Barbary War (1801-1805), and the War of 1812.

### Classification and Academic Context
As an instance of bibliography, this work participates in a field with established academic credentials:
- **Parent Fields:** Library science and information science
- **Dewey Decimal Classification:** 010 (Bibliography)
- **Practitioners:** Bibliographers who compile such works apply methods from descriptive bibliography (detailing physical characteristics of sources), textual bibliography (examining editions and printings), and critical bibliography (analyzing book production and transmission)

The discipline was formalized by Paul Otlet (1868-1944), the Belgian librarian and information scientist whose foundational contributions established bibliography as a systematic field of study. Otlet's work in documentation and classification provided the theoretical basis for creating specialized reference works like this bibliography.

### Relationship to Broader Bibliography
This bibliography exists within a ecosystem of related bibliographical endeavors:
- **General Bibliography:** Works covering bibliography as a discipline (010)
- **Historical Subfields:** Bibliographies focused on specific periods of American history
- **Military and Naval Bibliography:** Specialized works documenting publications on military and maritime subjects
- **Related Studies:** Areas such as incunabula (study of 15th-century printed books) represent related specialized bibliographical domains, though early American naval history would typically cover later periods

### Function and Utility
The primary function of Bibliography of early American naval history is to provide organized access to the scholarly literature on this topic. This involves:
- **Source Identification:** Cataloging books, journal articles, dissertations, and other publications
- **Descriptive Cataloging:** Recording bibliographic details (author, title, publisher, date, pagination)
- **Subject Access:** Organizing materials by topic, chronology, or theme to facilitate discovery
- **Verification Support:** Enabling researchers to confirm the existence and details of specific publications

### Historical Context of Early American Naval History
The subject matter itself—early American naval history—represents a significant domain within American military history. Key periods and events typically covered include:
- **Revolutionary Era (1775-1783):** Naval warfare against Britain, privateering, ships like USS Constitution
- **Early Republic (1783-1801):** Establishment of the Navy Department, naval policy debates, Quasi-War with France
- **First Barbary War (1801-1805):** American naval operations against Barbary pirates
- **War of 1812 (1812-1815):** Naval battles against Britain, including famous frigate engagements

A bibliography on this topic would help researchers navigate the extensive literature that has developed around these subjects since the nineteenth century.

### Connection to Information Science
This bibliography exemplifies the broader relationship between bibliography and information science. As noted in the source material, bibliography is "considered a subclass of information science" and serves as "a core component of the broader fields of library science and information science." Specialized bibliographies like this one demonstrate how bibliographical methods create order across vast domains of published knowledge, transforming scattered publications into searchable, verifiable resources.

The systematic approach pioneered by figures like Paul Otlet and elaborated through classification systems such as the Dewey Decimal Classification (where bibliography resides at 010) provides the framework that makes such specialized reference works possible. Without this foundational work in bibliography as a discipline, creating and maintaining effective specialized bibliographies would be considerably more difficult.