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Title: John Paul Jones : Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy by Evan Thomas ISBN: 0-7432-0583-9 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 14 May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (36 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Solid Story About A Spectacular Man
Comment: What a difference half a decade can make! In 1774 John Paul was a destitute ex-slave-ship captain on the lam, forsaking his native Scotland for the unknown British colonies of North America. In 1779, that same man, now known as John Paul Jones, was the most feared pirate of the British Isles, the victor of an incredible sea battle which made his name across the Continent, and the first great figure of what would become the American Navy.
Evan Thomas's "John Paul Jones" begins aboard of Bonhomme Richard, a crank Indiaman under Jones' fractious command, just as it is about to engage the British man-of-war Serapis off England's Flamborough Head. Cannons are primed, sand is spread over the decks to keep them from becoming slick with blood, and the doctor in the cockpit lays out buckets and saws for the surgery ahead. The Bonhomme Richard would not survive the battle, but Jones would emerge victorious anyway, plucking victory from the jaws of defeat by virtue of his grit and visionary fortitude.
Thomas makes a great story out of Jones' life. A senior writer with Newsweek, he is nothing if not readable, with attention for detail and a zest for the telling touch. After allowing a pair of lieutenants to hit up an earl for his silver, Jones goes out of his way to make amends, writing florid and flirtatious letters to the earl's wife and then, finally, returning the silver. "The tea leaves were still inside the teapot," Thomas writes.
He offers some interesting insight into what made Jones tick. It's very engaging, and fits together, but as a shrink, Thomas is a good journalist. A lot of times he talks up some awful situation Jones faced, being passed over or calumnied by his Revolutionary brethren, and ascribes the result to Jones' overweening pride. Jones seems to have been a proud man, though not excessively so given his accomplishments or the age he lived in. He did tarry in Paris a bit long between battles, but he was also given some pretty lacking subordinates and superiors.
Thomas calls him "the father of the American Navy." It was interesting to read others here saying that John Barry deserves that title. I find myself agreeing with Thomas. Barry was an accomplished commander, and America was lucky to have him, but Jones captured the imagination in a way that would resonate through the centuries. He was quoted, erroneously but with ringing grandeur, by U.S. naval leaders scraping themselves off the sea floor after Pearl Harbor. He remains a figure of pride today. He may never have said "I have not yet begun to fight," but he sure walked the walk.
I would have liked Thomas to have laid off the dime-store Freud and focused a chapter on just how much of an outlier he was in the early American naval tradition. Thomas does mention Barry in a footnote, and speaks passingly of other decent captains such as Gustavus Conyngham, a privateer who took the fight to English shores before Jones, but most of his analysis of the Revolutionary Navy is so disparaging as to beg wonder at how the Americans won, Jones or no. It's entertaining reading of losers like John Manley and Dudley Saltonstall, and no doubt accurate, but just how much of a sorry lot was the first U.S. Navy? We are told that when Jones engaged the Serapis, "no captain of an American navy ship had ever defeated and captured a British man-of-war of any real size or strength." But how unusual were Jones' successes? My sense is that when you include his capture of General Burgoyne's winter uniforms in 1776, and his harassment of British trade ships off the coasts of Nova Scotia and the home islands, Jones simply towers over his contemporaries. Just how much so would have made for good reading.
Instead, we get a lengthy examination of his poor record as a lothario, cadging young women, some disturbingly young, and writing verse of obvious below-the-beltline focus. He places his trust in charlatans and spies, and Thomas has at him for it, but the feeling that he may have been more of a victim of his own patriotism and honest zeal for liberty is not adequately addressed.
One interesting comparison Thomas makes all-too-briefly is with another American military commander, Benedict Arnold. It can be argued that Jones did at sea what Arnold did on land, giving legitimacy to the Revolutionary struggle via a blazing triumph against all odds. Both were traduced by scheming cohorts, and underappreciated by superiors. "But unlike Arnold, Jones remained steadfast to the American cause," Thomas notes.
That seems a point worth remembering. Even opting out of the U.S. Navy itself and becoming an American privateer, as many did, would have allowed Jones to make more money without committing treason. But he didn't. That's more worth study than his dalliances with the ladies of Holland or France. Thomas writes about Jones with appropriate zest and awe, and his book is a true joy, but its a bit of a missed opportunity too, in not getting past the trendy cynicism of our time and figuring out what makes for a genuine patriot. It's a good biography in the warts-and-all tradition of our day, just not definitive.
Rating: 5
Summary: John Paul Jones
Comment: An excellent, well written and highly readable biography of an exceptional hero from American history. I knew only the historical caricature of Jones from American history and was slightly disappointed to find that America's naval hero was a man with the same flaws and faults common to all men. Still, his inspiration and determination kept the American Revolution on track. Through this book I grew to like Jones and was genuinely saddened by his treatment from the country he had fought so gallantly to liberate, and which ultimately led to his untimely and tragic demise.
Rating: 3
Summary: The life of an unsung hero of the Revolutionary War
Comment: It would not be easy to write a biography on a man such as this. John Paul Jones did tremendous things for the American cause, and stood by his adopted country's navy even while being repeatedly mistreated and stabbed in the back by the likes of John Hancock, Edward Bancroft, and others. There is no explanation for Jones's loyalty, except to say that he was in it for glory. In fact, this seems to have been the motivation behind most of Jones's exploits. Still, vainglorious as the man was, there is no denying that he made a tremendous contribution to the American Revolution.
Evan Thomas handles his subject well, and seems mostly fair in his treatment of Jones. Still, he cannot help indulging in what is an all-too-common practice in historical biography these days. Thomas does not hesitate to throw his own thoughts in and add a little detail which enriches the narrative but not the history. Describing at times what Jones was feeling, what he wanted to do, how the weather affected him, and other details is stretching it a bit, given there is no way anyone can know these things for sure. Despite this shortcoming, however, this book is an entertaining read, and certainly worth the time to learn of one of the great unsung heroes of the Revolutionary War. It is nothing short of tragic that Jones was driven by an ungrateful America into service with the cruel Catherine the Great. This issue, along with many others, is treated in Thomas's book.
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Title: Benjamin Franklin : An American Life by Walter Isaacson ISBN: 0684807610 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History by George Crile ISBN: 0871138549 Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Nelson: Love & Fame by Edgar Vincent ISBN: 0300097972 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander ISBN: 067003133X Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 15 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Gentleman Revolutionary : Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution by Richard Brookhiser ISBN: 0743223799 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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