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An often-overlooked yet significant and prophetic event in U.S.
history, the Barbary War was America's first battle against an Arab
despot and President Thomas Jefferson's first major challenge to U.
S. foreign policy. As described by A.B.C. Whipple, it is a great
yarn as well as first-rate history. The author skillfully combines
vivid accounts of derring-do with shrewd appraisals of contemporary
politics and diplomacy. Because the Continental Navy had been
disbanded, there was an urgent need to develop a new Navy and
Marine Corps. Faced with the choice of trading arms for hostages or
meeting force with force, Jefferson sent a squadron of warships to
the Mediterranean while Congress was in recess, prompting the first
major debate on the war-making powers of a U.S. president. The war
included a blockade of Tripoli, sustained bombardment by the Navy's
new frigates, and finally a ground war fought by a U.S. Army
captain, eight Marines, and a rabble of Christians and Arabs sent
to free the hostages.
Whipple's rousing narrative is filled with fascinating
personalities. In addition to Jefferson, there is Commodore Edward
Preble, the quarter-deck tyrant who commanded the first naval
forces into battle; the bold junior officer Stephen Decatur; the
tyrannical bashaw, Yusuf Karamanli; William Eaton, an early-day
Lawrence of Arabia; Marine lieutenant Presley O'Bannon; and a host
of others.
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