Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation

by Joshua London

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471444154
• ISBN13: 9780471444152
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Wiley (TP)
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

"To the Shores of Tripoli..." Semper Fi and God Bless America!

I saw the author give a lecture on this book last week at the Navy Museum in the Washington Navy Yard here in DC, and was impressed enough to buy the book and get it autographed - his handwriting is terrible. Fortunately, he speaks very well and is engaging, insightful and entertaining. I began reading the book that evening, and finished it within a couple of days (it is a fairly quick read). Thankfully, he writes as well as he speaks. "Victory in Tripoli" is an amazingly good and compact book! History just dances off its pages. Strikingly, the author runs us through America's complex and confused diplomatic efforts in North Africa back then with some terrific detail and really admirable clarity and pacing. There are many lessons to be had from this rich and worthwhile book. Here are just a few I teased out for myself. One of the big things that I took away from this book is that our interaction with the Arabs hasn't changed all that much in 200 years. The same can be said for the behavior and attitudes of the Arabs towards us. Another big lesson I took from this book is that winning is important, there really is no substitute for victory. Clearly, there are times when one simply has to win to achieve peace, rather than endeavor to negotiate away "grievances" or "misunderstandings." Another big lesson for me from all this is that the religious dimension in the Middle East is substantive, and sometimes trumps more mundane interests like money and politics. Another lesson I teased out of the book is that U.S. foreign policy is at its best when it sticks to its moral and philosophical principles and at its worst when it sacrifices these for realpolitik or in the name of political expediency. Another lesson that seems clear to me is that the United States is a fundamentally different sort of Nation, in virtually every worthwhile respect, from the nations of (Old World) Europe, and that America is at its best on the world's stage when it forges its own path, on its own terms. Another aspect of this book that is worth mentioning is that the author does a most skillful job of painting clear, dramatic, and meaningful portraits of some of the key figures in this history. These include Thomas Jefferson, Pasha Yusuf Qaramanli and his brother Ahmad, William Eaton, Richard O'Brien, James Cathcart, Capt. William Bainbridge, Commodore Edward Preble, Captain Stephen Decatur, Jr., Marine Lt. Presley Neville O'Bannon, and several others. Also, the action sequences are brisk and wonderfully handled. And throughout the writing style is clear, intelligent, and almost completely unobtrusive. In most every respect, "Victory in Tripoli" is a real pleasure to read. My only "complaints" with this book are that (1) I would have preferred a clearer and more detailed map of the region and the principle harbors, and (2) I would have liked a little more detail on the French decision to invade Algiers in 1830 (this is obviously outside the scope of the author's focu

THE FIRST WAR ON TERROR:

If you're anything like me the extent of your knowledge about the Barbary War is that Jefferson fought it and that it's commemorated in the Marine hymn: "...to the shores of Tripoli." Here though, presented in immensely readable fashion, is a history of what turn out to have been America's Barbary Wars, not just one war. Indeed, the fact that a subsequent war was required is just one of the ways that Joshua E. London ties the events of two hundred years ago, and of our first encounter with the Islamic world, into the events going on around us today. The parallels he draws help us both to understand the successes and failures of strategy in our own time and to relate better to our distant ancestors as they experience many of the same. Though we refer to them as pirates, Mr. London shows that we might better think of the Barbary raiders as state-sponsored terrorists. Acting on behalf of the rulers of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers, they would harass Mediterranean shipping and capture boats and crews. Ships were converted to the state's use and crewmen essentially enslaved or both were held for ransom. The European nations had settled into an acceptance of this sort of outrage and paid regular tribute or protection money, but the young American nation, once it lost Britain's protection, could neither easily afford such payments nor abide by their moral taint. And so, especially under President Jefferson, the United States decided to pursue a unilateral policy of resisting the Barbary states, even to the point of attempted regime change. All that sounds familiar enough and redounds to our credit. However, this is also a story of bureaucratic turf wars and infighting, of feckless leaders, of a policy only haphazardly applied, and, in the most haunting parallel of all, of how the regime change was stopped just when it was about to work, thereby requiring a second, and definitive, war later under Jefferson's successor and political heir, James Madison. The tragic figure who holds this tale together is William Eaton--a Captain in the Revolutionary War and later consul to Tunis--who pushes throughout for a sterner American response to Barbary provocations. In response to an early humiliation--when the U.S.S. George Washington was forced by Dey Bobba Mustafa to transport an embassy to Constantinople under the Algerine flag in October, 1800--he wrote: "Genius of My country! How art thou prostrate! Hast thou not yet one son whose soul revolts, whose nerves convulse, blood vessels burst, and heart indignant swells at thought of such debasement? Shade of Washington! Behold thy orphan'd sword hang on a slave--A voluntary slave, and serve a Pirate!....Shall Tunis also lift his thievish arm, smite our scarred cheek, then bid us kiss the rod! This is the price of peace! But if we will have peace at such a price, recall me, and send a slave, accustomed to abasement, to represent the nation.... History shall tell that the United States first volunteered a s

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!

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.

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.