Author: Evan Thomas
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451603991
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 420
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Book Description
The New York Times bestseller from master biographer Evan Thomas brings to life the tumultuous story of the father of the American Navy. John Paul Jones, at sea and in the heat of the battle, was the great American hero of the Age of Sail. He was to history what Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey and C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower are to fiction. Ruthless, indomitable, clever; he vowed to sail, as he put it, “in harm’s way.” Evan Thomas’s minute-by-minute re-creation of the bloodbath between Jones’s Bonhomme Richard and the British man-of-war Serapis off the coast of England on an autumn night in 1779 is as gripping a sea battle as can be found in any novel. Drawing on Jones’s correspondence with some of the most significant figures of the American Revolution—John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson—Thomas’s biography teaches us that it took fighters as well as thinkers, men driven by dreams of personal glory as well as high-minded principle, to break free of the past and start a new world. Jones’s spirit was classically American.
Author: Joseph F Callo
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612510167
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 289
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Book Description
Winner of the Samuel Eliot Morrison Award for Excellence in Naval Literature. This fresh look at America's first sea warrior avoids both the hero worship of the past and the recent, inaccurate deconstructionist views of John Paul Jones's astonishing life. The author goes beyond a narrow naval context to establish Jones as a key player in the American Revolution, something not done by previous biographers, and explains what drove him to his achievements. At the same time, Admiral Joseph Callo fully examines Jones's dramatic military achievements—including his improbable victory off Flamborough Head in the Continental ship Bonhomme Richard—but in the context of the times rather than as stand-alone events. The book also looks at some interesting but lesser-known aspects of Jones's naval career, including his relationships with such civilian leaders as Benjamin Franklin. How Jones handled those often-difficult dealings, Callo maintains, contributed to the nation's concept of civilian control of the military. Suggesting that Jones might well be the first U.S. apostle of sea power, the author also focuses on the fact that Jones was the first serving American naval officer who emphasized the role naval power would play in the rise of the United States as a global power. Another neglected aspect of Jones's career that gets attention and analysis is his brief tour in the Russian navy, a revealing chapter of his life that has been underreported in the two hundred years since Jones's death. Rather than looking at Jones in a rearview mirror, Callo illuminates how this unique naval hero is linked to the nation's present and future. As a result, he gives us a sea saga that tells much about our own lives and times.
Author: Samuel Eliot Morison
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 9781557504104
Category : Admirals
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
This 1959 Pulitzer Prize-winning book vividly portrays the illustrious career of John Paul Jones, from his early training at sea in the British West Indian merchant trade to his command in the newly independent American Navy and his eventual award of flag status.
Author: Mame Warren
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 138
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Book Description
Author: John Henry Sherburne
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 438
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Book Description
Author: Tim McGrath
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0451416112
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 562
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Book Description
WINNER OF THE SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON AWARD FOR NAVAL LITERATURE • “A meticulous, adrenaline-filled account of the earliest days of the Continental Navy.”—New York Times bestselling author Laurence Bergreen America in 1775 was on the verge of revolution—or, more likely, disastrous defeat. After the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, England’s King George sent hundreds of ships westward to bottle up American harbors and prey on American shipping. Colonists had no force to defend their coastline and waterways until John Adams of Massachusetts proposed a bold solution: The Continental Congress should raise a navy. The idea was mad. The Royal Navy was the mightiest floating arsenal in history, with a seemingly endless supply of vessels. More than a hundred of these were massive “ships of the line,” bristling with up to a hundred high-powered cannon that could level a city. The British were confident that His Majesty’s warships would quickly bring the rebellious colonials to their knees. They were wrong. Beginning with five converted merchantmen, America’s sailors became formidable warriors, matching their wits, skills, and courage against the best of the British fleet. Victories off American shores gave the patriots hope—victories led by captains such as John Barry, the fiery Irish-born giant; fearless Nicholas Biddle, who stared down an armed mutineer; and James Nicholson, the underachiever who finally redeemed himself with an inspiring display of coolness and bravery. Meanwhile, along the British coastline, daring raids by handsome, cocksure John Paul Jones and the “Dunkirk Pirate,” Gustavus Conyngham—who was captured and sentenced to hang but tunneled under his cell and escaped to fight again—sent fear throughout England. The adventures of these men and others on both sides of the struggle rival anything from Horatio Hornblower or Lucky Jack Aubrey. In the end, these rebel sailors, from the quarterdeck to the forecastle, contributed greatly to American independence. Meticulously researched and masterfully told, Give Me a Fast Ship is a rousing, epic tale of war on the high seas—and the definitive history of the American Navy during the Revolutionary War.
Author: Keith Brandt
Publisher: Troll Communications
ISBN: 9780893758509
Category : Admirals
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Traces and early life of the Scottish-born sea captain who, after killing a mutineer, sailed to America, where he became a hero of the Revolution and founded the United States Navy.
Author: Norma Jean Lutz
Publisher: Chelsea House Pub
ISBN: 9780791057025
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 80
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Book Description
A biography of the well-known naval leader, John Paul Jones, from his birth in Scotland through his participation in the American Revolution to his death in Paris at the age of forty-five.
Author: Armstrong Sperry
Publisher: Young Voyageur
ISBN: 0760352526
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 169
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Book Description
A classic biography of John Paul Jones for young readers in a new, illustrated edition. Called a pirate by the British and a patriot by the Americans, John Paul Jones was a brilliant sea captain, a true American hero, and the father of the U.S. Navy. With this classic biography for young readers by Newbery Medal winner Armstrong Sperry, readers will imagine themselves on deck at the side of the great captain, engaging enemy ships in close combat. Jones became an invaluable asset to the rebellious American colonists in their fight for independence when he offered his services to the newly established Continental Navy. In a barely seaworthy ship, the Bonhomme Richard, named in honor of his benefactor Benjamin Franklin, Jones harassed and captured British ships and took cargoes desperately needed by the impoverished rebels. Sperry draws a full and brilliant portrait of America's first naval hero.
Author: John Paul Jones
Publisher: American Revolution Bicentennial Office Library of Congress
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 144
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Book Description
