I've seen some errors in Perret's book, although I enjoy his work.

I doubt there is an error-free history published, and some of them seem
inexplicable. I remember reading David Halberstam's "The Reckoning," and
coming upon his explanation of why Perry's armada was described as "black
ships." Halberstam said it was because his ships were ironclads. Halberstam
was obviously unaware that ironclads were largely a product of the ACW, some
years in the future at the time of Perry's mission. He was also obviously
unaware of Perry's role in introducing steam power into the US Navy and that
three (iirc) of his Japanese armada ships were steamships belching black
smoke---and thus the Japanese name for them (supposedly).
Even though this was a minor error in a book on a different topic (the auto
industry), I still thereafter viewed what Halberstam said with skepticism I
otherwise wouldn't have had.
Justified skepticism, as it turned out, since Ford was about to embark on a
huge comeback and Nissan was soon to take a header towards bankruptcy (H. wrote
about how Ford had messed up and Nissan had got everything right.)



Chris Mark