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John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy | 
 enlarge | Author: Evan Thomas
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
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Rating:  51 reviews
Sales Rank: 114065
Media: Paperback
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0743258045
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780743258043
ASIN: 0743258045
Publication Date: May 4, 2004
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Condition: New, unread, unsed and in perfect conditions with no missing or damaged pages, may have a remainder mark.Varying degrees of shelf wear. Great Customer Service! No hassle retrns!
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Amazon.com Review
Evan Thomas s John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy grounds itself on the facts of Jones s life and accomplishments to bolster his place among the pantheon of Revolutionary heroes while also working to deflate the myths that have circulated about his name. Jones, we learn, was confronted throughout his life with controversy and was crippled by ambition. But Thomas lauds Jones for early innovations as an American self-made man who rose from Scottish servitude. Jones, despite his too brisk manner, was a true success, if not genius, as a naval captain. Early in the Revolutionary War, he captured a shipload of winter uniforms destined for General Burgoyne s army in Canada, which instead warmed General Washington s troops as they swept across the Delaware to defeat British at Princeton and Trenton. Later, Jones helped formulate the Navy s plan of psychological warfare on British citizens. And Jones s strategy to cut off the British fleet via the French Navy was arguably the most decisive strategic decision of the War. In the end, Thomas makes a good case for a renewed appreciated for Jones s role in the broader revolution, citing his many connections to the Founding Fathers and his contributions to the broader war effort. While it may be that the John Paul Jones who proclaimed "I have not yet begun to fight" never existed, the real man behind the textbook legend is every bit as compelling a figure in Thomas s hands. This temperate biography situates Jones in what will likely prove durable fashion among portraits of Adams, Franklin, Washington, and Jefferson. --Patrick O'Kelley
Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
Background to US Navy Traditions January 11, 2007
Kenneth G. Kraetzer (White Plains, NY USA)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
John Paul Jones was a historical figure, but I really did know much about him until reading this very well written story. I gave this book to a number of friends this year as a holiday gift. Jones made two voyages around England during the Revolutionary War sailing ships procured for him from France. There have been modern ships in the Navy named Ranger and Bon Homme Richard, but I did not know until reading this that those were the names of Jones ships during those famous voyages. After reading this you will know the answer to a great quiz show question which is who is the patron, that the ship, Bon Home Richard was named after. I look forward to reading the story that Evan Thomas just released describing American naval heroes of WWII.
An excellent and balanced account of Jones December 29, 2006
R. E. Statham (Atlanta, GA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have to admit I bought this book because it was in the closeout bin and I got a deal on it. I next have to admit that it sat in a pile of books to read for at least three months before I got around to reading it. But on starting it, I was highly impressed. It's well paced, factual, well researched without being dry and scholarly.
First, I had no idea that his battles were fought off the English and Scottish coasts and that he was considered to be a pirate by the English- I always thought he fought battles off the American coast.
Second, I had no idea that he was so closely tied with Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and the closing stages of the French monarchy- nor that he served under Catherine the Great in helping her to gain a passage through the Black Sea.
Third, the personality of the man, greatly flawed in its insatiable desire for glory and honor, was balanced by an ability to fight-- and to WIN.
America wasn't a third-rate, fourth-rate or even a fifth-rate naval power during her Revolutionary War. America was essentially a "no rate." But Jones gave America victories when most others (with a few notable exception) did not. And he forced the British to bring home more of Her navy to protect home waters.
For those who have read any of the Horatio Hornblower or "Lucky Jack Aubrey" works of fiction, I recommend that they also read this book.
War is mostly waged by ordinary men- with fears, hopes, desires and needs like all of us. However, in every major conflict there a very few, like John Paul Jr., son of an English landscape gardener, who do more than their duty would dicate. For John Paul "Jones" it was his desire to be covered with glory and honor as well as his desire to build a winning AMERICAN Navy that caused him to push himselves and others far beyond the normal limits.
To "Jones", the thoughts of marriage, children, even his health were secondary to these.
I salute Evan Thomas for an excellent work about the father of the American Navy.
 From Pirate to Hero December 13, 2006
Lehigh History Student
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you want to understand how the modern navy was born in America this is one of two books you will need. Understanding the mentality that drove our early navy to their few successes is a harrowing story that is told best here. This focuses on our lake fleets as well as our ocean fleets and does so in a very concise manner. The prose is very good and the information is well referenced. Anyone looking for information on the history of American navy will be well served with this book.
 Don't judge this book by it's cover! October 22, 2006
The Turlock Kid (Salt Lake City)
13 out of 18 found this review helpful
Don't judge this book by it's cover! (The cover is beautiful...)
I'll begin with the good things in the book. It has a decent overview of Jones' life and accomplishments. A first-time reader about Jones will find the catalog of his daring exploits both interesting and exciting. Evan Thomas's narration of the sea battles and manoeuvers are as thrillingly told as any of O'Brian's or Forester's epics. However, besides the battles, this book doesn't do much but echo the author's malicious conclusions about Jones.
Thomas seems to think that he is writing a Doctoral or Master's thesis and that we, as readers, continually forget what the main point of the book is. Don't be decieved, the author is not a fan of Jones. In striving to be "historically fair", we are faced with a book mainly about Jones's glaring shortcomings. Thomas has made it his goal to make sure we know that every single thing Jones did (from his letters to his heroics) was motivated by his "demon pride" (p. 310). It seems every paragraph begins or ends (sometimes both) with a scathing statement about Jones' lust for glory. Instead of stating the facts in an interesting narrative, we are faced with a continual repitition of Thomas' main thesis: Jones was not a hero, but a vain, glory-seeking upstart who wasn't even a good seaman. Often we get a sense that the thesis is wearing thin and completely falling apart. In order to buttress that, Thomas redundantly restates it lest we forget and start forming our own conclusions. Heaven forbid great men did great things for great reasons!
I have read scores of historical biographies and none have been as vitriolic towards their subject as Thomas is to Jones. Granted, Thomas does an effectual job belittling everyone, but I thought the part of the title "Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy" meant he liked Jones. It must have been added by someone else, for it doesn't reflect the author's views.
As I said previously, the book isn't without merit. It's battles are told very well, and the overview of Jones' accomplishments (and failures) are great. However, I would recommend reading another account of Jones that didn't seek to villify him and call it "historical fairness" (or whatever the term for giving more pages to his faults rather than his accomplishments is). If you want your conclusions dictated to you, read this book. If you prefer to draw them yourself, look elsewhere.
On Azure Waves July 23, 2006
Seachranaiche (USA)
I am unaware of any hero from the American Revolution who was not flawed in some way, and John Paul Jones is no exception. But as always, the truth of their lives is much more compelling than the mythology of their lives: the actions and quotations invented about them by storytellers, which seemed to be necessary in order to cement their greatness in history (and probably to sell pamphlets and books), have only served to freeze them into short, individual moments of otherwise longer careers and lives.
There is a certain tragic sadness about the life of John Paul Jones, and Evan Thomas captures that sadness in this excellent biography. Jones was a man who, without a doubt, possessed a brilliance of naval tactics--tactics that provided the American cause with tangible cachet at its darkest hour--but a man who could never quite claim membership in the rarified company of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin. Jones is the blue-water twin of George Washington: ambitious, dedicated, domineering, persevering, far-seeing, and challenged at every turn by lesser men, but the ducks of fate would never quite line up in his favor to boost his confidence beyond the flaws of his personality.
Evan Thomas' telling of Jones' story makes no apologies, spares no remonstrance. Thomas describes Jones through manic highs and lows, with revelations that can cause the reader to wince at Jones' more pitiful moments. But then a battle comes and Jones stands boldly, for honor not for gold, and sets aside his demons for a greater cause. Jones recognized his flaws and wrestled with them throughout his life. If anything, this struggle makes Jones greater--fully human and fighting to rise above his faults.
Aficionados of 18th century naval literature will appreciate Thomas' descriptions of the battles. Neophytes will appreciate Thomas' use of modern language and the glossary of 18th century naval terms in the back of the book.
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