The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson,
the First Marines, and the Secret
Mission of 1805 by Richard Zacks
One Of My Favorite Books Of All Time
A real-life thriller, now in paperback -- the true story of the unheralded
American who brought the Barbary Pirates to their knees In an attempt to
stop the legendary Barbary Pirates of North Africa from hijacking American
ships, William Eaton set out on a secret mission to overthrow the
government of Tripoli. The operation was sanctioned by President Thomas
Jefferson, who at the last moment grew wary of intermeddling in a foreign
government and sent Eaton off without proper national s upport. Short on
supplies, given very little money and only a few men, Eaton and his
mission seemed doomed from the start. He triumphed against all odds,
recruited a band of European mercenaries in Alexandria, and led them on
a march across the Libyan Desert. Once in Tripoli, the ragtag army
defeated the local troops and successfully captured Derne, laying the
groundwork for the demise of the Barbary Pirates. Now, Richard Zacks
brings this important story of America’s first overseas covert op to life.
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What a book!
I agree completely with the other positive reviews I read of this book. Just
a brilliant, historically accurate, enthralling, adventurous, character
revealing, emotional roller coaster of a biography. Americans should be
proud of Thomas Eaton. Where are the monuments to this guy? This
story certainly paints a black eye on Thomas Jefferson's otherwise noble
face.
This is sort of like a Tom Clancy novel set in 1804. But why bother reading
fiction when non-fiction can be this fascinating??
I've gotta read Zack's other books now.
At first I was going to call it "historical fiction", but this book was not fiction.
Other authors whose books I've read like Wilbur Smith or Mika Waltari are
comparably enjoyable reads. Mika Waltari (Sinuhe and Johannes
Angelos) has very fictionalized characters that could have been real.
Wilbur Smith's characters are even more unrealistically romanticized to the
point where it sounds like an Indiana Jones novel, so both of those guys
are not really writing history any more. Zacks doesn't fall into this trap
because his character (William Eaton) is firmly connected to the real life
guy who luckily happened to leave a lot of documentation to tell the actual
events first hand. I have to say that I enjoyed all the details of this book.
Having been in Tunis and Egypt myself (as also Massachussetts and DC),
I can really visualize the events that are described here. Good job,
Richard Zacks! By the way, I bought the book from the Monticello
museum in Virginia. Sorry, Amazon... ;-)
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