Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History

Brian Kilmeade · Don Yaeger

Nov 2015 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Brian Kilmeade

About this audiobook

“Another blockbuster! Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates reads like an edge-of-your-seat, page-turning thriller. You will love this book and also wonder why so few people know this story. No one captures the danger, intrigue, and drama of the American Revolution and its aftermath like Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger.” —Brad Thor

This is the little-known story of how a newly indepen­dent nation was challenged by four Muslim powers and what happened when America’s third president decided to stand up to intimidation.
 
When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America faced a crisis. The new nation was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa’s Barbary coast routinely captured American sailors and held them as slaves, demanding ransom and tribute payments far beyond what the new coun­try could afford.
 
Over the previous fifteen years, as a diplomat and then as secretary of state, Jefferson had tried to work with the Barbary states (Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco). Unfortunately, he found it impossible to negotiate with people who believed their religion jus­tified the plunder and enslavement of non-Muslims. These rogue states would show no mercy—at least not while easy money could be made by extorting the Western powers. So President Jefferson decided to move beyond diplomacy. He sent the U.S. Navy’s new warships and a detachment of Marines to blockade Tripoli—launching the Barbary Wars and beginning America’s journey toward future superpower status.
 
As they did in their previous bestseller, George Washington’s Secret Six, Kilmeade and Yaeger have transformed a nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next. Among the many sus­penseful episodes:
 
·Lieutenant Andrew Sterett’s ferocious cannon battle on the high seas against the treacherous pirate ship Tripoli.
 
·Lieutenant Stephen Decatur’s daring night raid of an enemy harbor, with the aim of destroying an American ship that had fallen into the pirates’ hands.

·General William Eaton’s unprecedented five-hundred-mile land march from Egypt to the port of Derne, where the Marines launched a surprise attack and an American flag was raised in victory on foreign soil for the first time.
 
Few today remember these men and other heroes who inspired the Marine Corps hymn: “From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli, we fight our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea.” Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates recaptures this forgot­ten war that changed American history with a real-life drama of intrigue, bravery, and battle on the high seas.

Ratings and reviews

Most Interesting Audiobook story. It is certainly on a forgotten aspect of Jefferson's Administration. Jefferson had a habit of biting off much more than he could stomach. Liberal politicians and moderate Republicans, I dare say- all politicians tend to do this at times, especially when real leadership is needed. The best historians since the Greeks bear the scars for all to see. Such is real history. More should hear this story. There is much more of it to understand of this event. I blame the editor for that aspect, the writer did his best I believe. Jefferson is seen as he really was. No B.S. History Channel use of weak historians. Yale and Harvard use to turn out deeper thinkers in my day. Here, in this story, the reader is slammed into history in a vivid way. I really think the author does a exceptional job. The more I dig into Jefferson, the worse I uncover as to his weakness in foreign policy. My Yale Professor and my Oxford Professors tend to agree that Jefferson tended to look for the easiest answers to difficult situations IRT Foreign Diplomacy. IMHO this shows his weakness in leadership. Because as a politician, and a Francophile at heart, he always looks for a proper defense in times of war or chaos. Jefferson was not as bright a light as last two hundred years of writers and historians have shown, a founding father, yes, however, he was very afraid of a standing army and navy due to in his thoughts a need for recruitment for said forces was always drawn on the 2.5 of the faithfullest Americans. He himself promoted and sustained the traitor Major General Wilkinson, and distained many of the brave gentlemen warriors from the North eastern states due to his distaste of the Lawyer A. Burr. BG Eaton and 1st Lt Wesley O'bannon were unique characters in their own right, as were those loyal US sailors of the USS Philadelphia. Their ship's Captain should have been broken to the ranks for his repeated failures. The story in it's original insightful way, was actually drawn upon by Major Laurance a century later, when he asked a visiting American Historian at Christ College,"... to speak about that cheeky fellow, BG William Eaton and his rag tag band of dirty Shirts and a handfull of those Marines- that crossed a desert to attack a Mad Mula Shiek enslaving that region, and free the Americans held in slavery." One day I will tell the rest of that story.... OWAA Outdoor Writer Walter (Joe Guide) Dinkins Wilmington, N.C.

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Excellent read

About the author

BRIAN KILMEADE and DON YAEGER are the coauthors of George Washington’s Secret Six, a New York Times bestseller for more than five months. Kilmeade cohosts Fox News Channel’s morning show Fox & Friends and hosts the daily national radio show The Brian Kilmeade Show. He lives on Long Island. This is his fourth book. Yaeger has written or cowritten twenty-four books and lives in Florida.