Product Description

At the dawn of a new century, a newly elected U.S. president was forced to confront an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim terrorists sworn to carry out jihad against all Western powers. As timely and familiar as these events may seem, they occurred more than two centuries ago. The president was Thomas Jefferson, and the terrorists were the Barbary pirates. Victory in Tripoli recounts the untold story of one of the defining challenges overcome by the young U.S. republic. This fast-moving and dramatic tale examines the events that gave birth to the Navy and the Marines and re-creates the startling political, diplomatic, and military battles that were central to the conflict. This highly interesting and informative history offers deep insight into issues that remain fundamental to U.S. foreign policy decisions to this day.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #282161 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Booklist
London may hope that his sound history of the war with the Barbary pirates, published in time for the 2005 bicentennial of the conflict, will inspire readers to support new efforts in the war on terrorism. At any rate, he gives us a thoroughly readable history of a prolonged crisis in American foreign and naval policy that arose when the U.S. became independent from Great Britain and commerce that had been colonial was no longer sheltered by a mother country's large navy. To cope with the seizing of American ships and the ransoming of American sailors who were held under often barbaric conditions, the U.S. revived its navy and sent it into action off the shores of Tripoli. A cheap or unqualified victory wasn't achieved, but a useful precedent was set for armed resistance to international extortion. Moreover, the U.S. made a permanent commitment to maintaining a navy. London also gives full credit for valiant effort to Consul William Eaton, who marched across the desert to press the pirates by land. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Inside Flap
As a new century dawned, a newly elected U.S. president was forced to confront a grave threat to the nation—an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim terrorists sworn to carry out jihad against all Western powers. Worse still, these fanatics operated under the protection and sponsorship of rogue states ruled by ruthless and cunning dictators. As timely and familiar as these events may seem, they occurred more than two centuries ago. The president was Thomas Jefferson, and the terrorists were the Barbary pirates of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli.

Victory in Tripoli recounts the untold story of one of the defining challenges overcome by the young U.S. republic. This fast-moving and dramatic tale examines the events that gave birth to the Navy and the Marines, recounting the harrowing experiences of U.S. seamen held as slaves in North Africa for more than a decade and re-creating the startling political, diplomatic, and military battles that were central to the conflict.

The story begins with humiliation: a U.S. warship—the first ever in the Mediterranean Sea—sailing into the harbor of Algiers to pay protection money to Algerine ruler Dey Bobba Mustafa. This custom of paying pirates not to attack merchant vessels, long practiced by the European powers, rankled the ship's captain, William Bainbridge, as well as U.S. consuls Richard O'Brien and William Eaton. Over the next five years, these men, along with a handful of others, would do everything in their power to end this policy of appeasement and bring U.S. power to bear against the Barbary pirates.

Standing alone against the pirates, the United States resorted to naval blockades, covert operations and night raids, amphibious assaults, brute force, attempted regime change through a coup d'état, employment of mercenary forces, and, finally, the betrayal of a trusted ally in its quest for victory. The young nation would learn valuable lessons in cross-cultural diplomacy, diplomatic maneuvering, and the projection of military might as an extension of public policy.

Victory in Tripoli examines every aspect of the first U.S. military campaign through foreign lands—from the spectacular naval heroics of the legendary Stephen Decatur to Eaton's perilous march across the Sahara, from Jefferson's flip-flopping on the use of force to petty squabbles among diplomats that produced dire consequences for the United States. This highly interesting and informative history offers deep insight into issues that remain fundamental to U.S. foreign policy decisions to this day.

From the Back Cover
"This is a tale of piracy, heroism, disaster, triumph, and American exceptionalism. A wonderful story, filling a gap in the history of the early republic. A terrific book!"
—Bernard Cornwell, New York Times bestselling author of Sharpe's Havoc

"Insightful and entertaining, Victory in Tripoli is an absolutely fascinating story, wonderfully told. Anyone with even a passing interest in naval history, or U.S. history in general, should read this book."
—Admiral William J. Crowe Jr., USN (Ret.), former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

"Victory in Tripoli deftly captures the dangers of covert operations, the complexity of international diplomacy, and the thrills and horrors of battle. Joshua E. London's exciting and insightful look at one of America's earliest and seldom remembered foreign escapades offers much for the keen observer of current events."
—Charles T. Pinck, president of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Society

"History shall tell that the United States first volunteered a ship of war, equipped, a carrier for a pirate. . . . Frankly I own, I would have lost the peace and been impaled myself rather than yield such a concession. Will nothing rouse my country!"
—William Eaton, in a letter to the secretary of state, 1800

Giving money, arms, and a warship to a pirate who has attacked our merchant vessels and taken U.S. sailors as slaves? William Eaton, United States consul to Tunis, was furious. Eaton, however, was not a man given to impotent rage. He was intent on ending the custom of paying protection money to the Barbary pirates of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. His plan: to reverse the roles of diplomacy in the region by taking the fight straight to the piratical regimes.

Over the next five years, the fledgling U.S. Navy would develop into a formidable force as it employed blockades, covert operations, amphibious assaults, brute force, and even mercenaries to make the Mediterranean safe for U.S. merchant ships. Victory in Tripoli tells the inspiring story of how Eaton and a few other determined Americans forced their young nation to stand up to terrorism. It is an eerily familiar tale whose lessons remain central to U.S. foreign policy to this day.

Customer Reviews

A wonderfully written history.
Americans now take trade and all its benefits for granted. We buy American flags from China, television sets made in Malaysia, computer chips constructed in Costa Rica, and travel across the country in airplanes often made in Europe. Our oil can come from the Middle East or Southeast Asia, electricity sometimes from Canada, non-seasonal fruits from Chile, cement and building materials from Mexico, and so on and so forth.

But two hundred years ago, this kind of trade could not be taken for granted -- and not because of taxes, tariffs or French duties on Wisconsin cheese, but becuase of violence on the high seas. American merchants seeking Mediterranean markets for American goods, and the newest European gadgets, fabrics and perfumes for import to the new American states, took on one of the most dangerous occupations in the world, because of the very real threat of pirates harbored by the Barbary states.

Arrrrrh!

Seriously. This Mediterranean mafia thuggery of the early 19th Century had a profound impact both comercially and geopolitically. Americans, recently on their own and, ironically, without the "protection" of King George, were forced into serious isolation by a band of thuggish terrorists, hell bent on booty and with their very own protectorate.

How to deal?

As we deal now: With the United States Marine Corps.

Josh London has woven a rich, exciting history of an era with so many ties to our own. Victory in Tripoli reads like a novel and deserves to be studied widely on our 200th anniversary of victory on the high seas. Enjoy it!

A thoroughly engaging and very readable history!!!
The book deftly relates America's struggle with the Barbary Pirates, telling a fascinating and relatively forgotten chapter of American history. Even without any background on the history of America's war with the Barbary pirates, a couple of pages into London's book, I was hooked for the long haul. Not only is the book highly informative, it handles the issue of Muslim piracy threatening and terrorizing non-Muslims very intelligently. The book doesn't get mired in current political battles or ideology, but there is a clear historical parallel to what it going on today in America's war against terror.

In a sense, this book is a history about America's first war against Islamic-fundamentalism-fueled terrorism, and it carries with it many lessons relevant to our struggle today.

AN EXCELLENT HISTORY
"Victory in Tripoli" is an compelling account of the new American nation's first foreign adventure. This book is an excellent history of the United States first foreign military campaign, and a valuable contribution to the understanding of America's early history. Mr. London has captured the drama and adventure of this period and the personalities that shaped it.

Mr. London deserves kudos not only for so convincingly presenting his case but making such a good read out of it. London is a skilled writer, an excellent historian and a good storyteller. "Victory in Tripoli" is a compelling story of the birth of America and how it projected its power abroad for the first time. One hopes that "Victory in Tripoli" will become one of the definitive sources on this topic.

Highly recommended.