The history of America's conflict with the piratical states of the
Mediterranean runs through the presidencies of Washington, Adams,
Jefferson, and Madison; the adoption of the Constitution; the
Quasi-War with France and the War of 1812; the construction of a
full-time professional navy; and, most important, the nation's
haltering steps toward commercial independence. Frank Lambert's
genius is to see in the Barbary Wars the ideal means of capturing
the new nation's shaky emergence in the complex context of the
Atlantic world.
Depicting a time when Britain ruled the seas and France most of
Europe, "The ""Barbary"" Wars "proves America's earliest conflict
with the Arabic world was always a struggle for economic advantage
rather than any clash of cultures or religions. Frank Lambert
teaches history at Purdue University and is the author of "The
Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in American," "Inventing
the" ""Great Awakening, "" and ""Pedlar in Divinity"": "George
Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals," " 1737"-"1770."
American independence was secured from Britain on September 3,
1783. On October 11, 1784, the American merchant ship" Betsy" was
captured by Salle Rovers, state-sponsored pirates operating out of
the ports of Morocco. Algerine pirates quickly seized two more
American ships: the boats were confiscated, their crews held
captive, and ransom demanded of the fledgling American government.
The history of America's conflict with the piratical states of the
Barbary Coast runs through the presidencies of Washington, Adams,
Jefferson, and Madison; the adoption of the Constitution; the
Quasi-War with France and the War of 1812; the construction of a
full-time professional navy; and, most important, the nation's
haltering steps toward commercial independence. Frank Lambert
captures the new nation's shaky emergence in the complex context of
the Atlantic world.
Depicting a time when Britain ruled the seas and France most of
Europe, "The Barbary Wars" proves America's earliest conflict with
the Arab world was always a struggle for economic advantage rather
than any clash of cultures or religions. "[A] concise overview of
the centuries-long depredations of the state-sponsored pirates of
Algiers, Tunis, Morocco and Tripoli, who not only seized ships but
enslaved their crews."--William Grimes, "The New York Times" "Since
September 11, politicians and pundits looking for historical
precedents have turned to the United States' first sustained
encounter with Muslim states: the effort to stop piracy by North
Africans. In this useful introduction, Lambert puts the Barbary
wars into the broader context of U.S. efforts to reshape and
participate in the Atlantic trading order in the years between the
Treaty of Paris that recognized American independence in 1783 and
the final failure of Napoleon's ambitions in 1815. Trade at the
time was seen largely in terms of concessions and privileges rather
than universal laws and natural rights. Independence from Britain
exposed U.S. commerce to the full range of mercantilist
restrictions on trade, as well as to the depredations of the North
African raiders. The engagements with the Barbary pirates were part
of the larger struggle to establish the United States' place in the
international order of the day. For those in search of lessons for
today, Lambert's crisp and readable narrative makes clear that it
took a combination of patient diplomacy, military force, and good
luck to make the Atlantic and Mediterranean worlds safe for U.S.
commerce. One suspects that all three factors are needed again
now."--Walter Russell Mead, "Foreign Affairs" "As Frank Lambert has
written in his magisterial book on the topic, "The Barbary Wars,"
the conflict with North African pirates was more a 'sideshow' than
the threat to 'America's survival.'"--"Chicago Tribune" "[A]
concise overview of the centuries-long depredations of the
state-sponsored pirates of Algiers, Tunis, Morocco and Tripoli, who
not only seized ships but enslaved their crews."--William Grimes,
"The New York Times" "[Lambert] does an excellent job of placing
the Barbary Wars within the context of their time."--"The
""Roanoke"" Times" "Frank Lambert's new book is a lucid and
compelling account of the new American nation's first confrontation
with the Muslim world. Lambert situates struggle against North
African 'pirates' within the broader context of America's quest for
free trade and commercial independence, countering the
anachronistic tendency of recent historians to inflate the
significance of religious and cultural differences. "The Barbary
Wars" is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the new
nation's troubled early history."--Peter Onuf, University of
Virginia "In this slim and eminently readable volume, author Frank
Lambert makes a case for the Barbary Wars as the first true test of
American Independence. Lambert, whose previous works deal with
early American religious history, goes to great lengths to show
that these disputes between North African Muslims and North
American Christians were rooted in economics issues, and not in
religious or cultural ones . . . Lambert skillfully addresses the
American-Barbary disputes in the context of a wider Atlantic and
international realm, giving a richly detailed and highly nuanced
appreciated for the dizzying array of events that marked
Mediterranean and North African history from the Crusades through
the eighteenth century . . . "The Barbary Wars" is an important
contribution to the fields of Atlantic and Early American history.
Do not be fooled by the thinness of the volume; this is a weighty
and much-needed corrective to the historiography of American
relations with the Muslim world. Where others see the conflict as
rooted in economic terms. Furthermore, his assertion that the
conflict is best understood in the light of larger issues--the
Napoleonic Wars, for example--allows the reader to better grasp the
nuances of an often misunderstood chapter in American foreign
relations. Lambert's sober reasoning and crisp writing allows him
to use the particular events of the Barbary Wars to illustrate
larger generalities in American and Atlantic history. "The Barbary
Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World" is a treatment
that deserves a wide--and guarantees an
engaged--readership."--Timothy G. Lynch, H-Net Reviews "Lambert
argues that the Barbary Wars were an American struggle for the
exercise of free trade rather than a battle between faiths or
cultures, as they have been portrayed in other recent accounts
seeking parallels with current American-Muslim entanglements.
Lambert describes a United States separately embroiled with the
armies of the French and the British and hampered by its virtual
lack of a navy. As Lambert adeptly shows, the Barbary Wars changed
all that."--"Library Journal"
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