John Paul Jones
The Life and Legacy of the Revolutionary War Commander Dubbed the Father of the American Navy
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Narrated by:
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David Bernard
About this listen
“Surrender? I have not yet begun to fight!” - attributed to John Paul Jones
Many Americans labor under the misconception that the nation’s colonial and national heritage was almost wholly accomplished by an English migration. However, early America witnessed the development of New York by the Dutch, the southernmost regions by Spain, and what would become eastern Canada by the French after lengthy battles with Britain. In fact, the Seven Years’ War during the 1750s was fought on a nearly global scale between several European belligerents.
As a result, when the Revolution began, the Continental Army sported numerous volunteers from Ireland, Scotland, virtually every European nation between France and Russia, and men from the northern and southern borders of the European continent. There are good reasons America doesn’t possess a constitutionally -confirmed national language, despite an English-speaking majority; among the early proposals for such a common language, German and French served as contenders, with the latter going on to become Western Europe’s official diplomatic language. Likewise, those who accomplished the legislative, diplomatic, and military miracles that helped 13 separate colonies hold off the greatest power in the world represented a multi-national heritage.
With European nations unceasingly at war, soldiers from one side or the other often found themselves in disfavor, were marked men in exile, or were fleeing from a superior force. To General George Washington’s good fortune, a few found their way to the colonies to join in the cause. Some were adventurers recently cut off from their own borders, while others embraced the American urge for freedom that so closely mirrored the same movements in their home countries.
Plenty of unusual characters came to the colonies to participate in the war, with many sporting dubious titles such as the Baron de Kalb, but perhaps none arrived in a more unique way than John Paul Jones, a Scottish sailor who had plenty of experience with British ships before a controversial row on one ship compelled him to flee to the colonies in 1775. As it turned out, he was arriving in Virginia just in time for more fighting, this time against the British.
Despite his lofty sobriquet, Jones constantly found himself frustrated by people and events beyond his control during the Revolution, and it would take years before the aggressive commander could take the fight to the British. Through a murky system involving French ships, and an even murkier chain of events, Jones engaged the British in battle around the British Isles, and his aggression became the stuff of legend. While the British accused him of being a pirate, he was feted by the Americans and French during the war before joining the Russian navy after the war.
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Story
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.
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Interesting history - terrible narrator
- By CJF on 12-08-15
By: Brian Kilmeade, and others
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Rebels at Sea
- Privateering in the American Revolution
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The heroic story of the founding of the US Navy during the Revolution has been told many times, yet largely missing from maritime histories of America's first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that truly revealed the new nation's character. In Rebels at Sea, Eric Jay Dolin corrects that significant omission, and contends that privateers, as they were called, were in fact critical to the American victory. Privateers were privately owned vessels that were granted permission by the new government to seize British merchantmen and men of war.
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If you can get over the narrator...
- By Toby Everett on 09-20-22
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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The First Salute
- A View of the American Revolution
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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This compellingly written history presents a fresh, new view of the events that led from the first foreign salute to American nationhood in 1776 to the last campaign of the Revolution five years later. It paints a magnificent portrait of General George Washington and recounts in riveting detail the events responsible for the birth of our nation.
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A brilliant classic
- By Matthew on 03-27-09
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Six Frigates
- By: Ian W. Toll
- Narrated by: Stephen Lang
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Abridged
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Before the ink was dry on the U.S. Constitution, the establishment of a permanent military had become the most divisive issue facing the new government. Would a standing army be the thin end of dictatorship? Would a navy protect American commerce against the Mediterranean pirates, or drain the treasury and provoke hostilities with the great powers? The founders, particularly Jefferson, Madison, and Adams, debated these questions fiercely and switched sides more than once.
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BE ADVISED THIS BOOK IS ABRIDGED
- By George Carpenter III on 09-11-08
By: Ian W. Toll
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Nelson's Trafalgar
- The Battle That Changed the World
- By: Roy Adkins
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In the tradition of Antony Beevor's Stalingrad, Nelson's Trafalgar presents the definitive blow-by-blow account of the world's most famous naval battle, when the British Royal Navy, under Lord Horatio Nelson, dealt a decisive blow to the forces of Napoleon. The Battle of Trafalgar comes boldly to life in this definitive work that recreates those five momentous, earsplitting hours with unrivaled detail and intensity.
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kiss me hardy!!!!
- By frank on 05-09-23
By: Roy Adkins
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The War for All the Oceans
- From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo
- By: Roy Adkins, Lesley Adkins
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 21 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Roy Adkins, with his wife, Lesley, returns to the Napoleonic War in The War for All the Oceans, a gripping account of the naval struggle that lasted from 1798 to 1815, a period marked at the beginning by Napoleon's seizing power and at the end by the War of 1812. In this vivid and visceral account, Adkins draws on eyewitness records to portray not only the battles but also the details of a sailor's life: shipwrecks, press-gangs, prostitutes, spies, and prisoners of war.
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Good material, horrid narration
- By SC Visel on 01-03-08
By: Roy Adkins, and others
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Blackbeard
- America's Most Notorious Pirate
- By: Angus Konstam
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Of all the colorful cutthroats who scoured the seas in search of plunder during the Golden Age of Piracy in the early 18th century, none was more ferocious or notorious than Blackbeard. As unforgettable as his savage career was, much of Blackbeard's life has been shrouded in mystery - until now. Drawing on vivid descriptions of Blackbeard's attacks from his rare surviving victims, pirate expert Angus Konstam traces Blackbeard's career from its beginnings to his final defeat in a tremendous sea battle near his base at Ocracoke Island
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It’s alright
- By B. Williams on 02-26-21
By: Angus Konstam
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Jefferson's War
- America's First War on Terror, 1801-1805
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: Patrick Cullen
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Two centuries ago, without congressional or public debate, a president who is thought of today as peaceable, Thomas Jefferson, launched America's first war on foreign soil, a war against terror. The enemy was Muslim; the war was waged unconventionally, with commandos, native troops, and encrypted intelligence, and launched from foreign bases.
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A Great Read
- By Donald on 06-19-05
By: Joseph Wheelan
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Broadsides: The Age of Fighting Sail, 1775-1815
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: David Rapkin
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late 18th century, it was widely thought that to be a sailor was little better than to be a slave. "No man will be a sailor," wrote Samuel Johnson, "who has contrivance enough to get himself into jail. A man in jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company." If that were true, historian Nathan Miller suggests, then the record of sailing in the age of tall ships would likely be distinguished by few heroes and fewer grand narratives.
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Misleading description, solid historical summary
- By M J Mills on 08-10-14
By: Nathan Miller
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John Paul Jones
- Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy
- By: Evan Thomas
- Narrated by: Dan Cashman
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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John Paul Jones is more than a great sea story. Jones is a character for the ages. John Adams called him the "most ambitious and intriguing officer in the American Navy." The renewed interest in the Founding Fathers reminds us of the great men who made this country, but John Paul Jones 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' spirit was classically American.
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Swashbuckler or Saviour
- By Bruce on 03-16-04
By: Evan Thomas
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Struggle for Sea Power
- A Naval History of the American Revolution
- By: Sam Willis
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The American Revolution was a naval war of immense scope and variety, including no less than 22 navies fighting on five oceans - to say nothing of rivers and lakes. In no other war were so many large-scale fleet battles fought, one of which was the most strategically significant naval battle in all of British, French, and American history.
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Fantastic perspective on American Revolution
- By J. Mar on 04-20-21
By: Sam Willis
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The Pirate Queen
- By: Susan Ronald
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Dubbed the "pirate queen" by the Vatican and Spain's Philip II, Elizabeth I was feared and admired by her enemies. Extravagant, whimsical, and hot-tempered, Elizabeth was the epitome of power. Her visionary accomplishments were made possible by her daring merchants, gifted rapscallion adventurers, astronomer philosophers, and her stalwart Privy Council, including Sir William Cecil, Sir Francis Walsingham, and Sir Nicholas Bacon.
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Too lilttle about Elizabeth!
- By Eunice on 12-20-07
By: Susan Ronald
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Wolf of the Deep
- Raphael Semmes and the Notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama
- By: Stephen Fox
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In July 1862, Confederate Captain Raphael Semmes took command of a secret new warship. At the helm of the Alabama, he became the most hated and feared man along the Union coast, as well as a Confederate legend. Now, with unparalleled authority, depth, and a vivid sense of the excitement and danger of the time, Stephen Fox describes Captain Semmes's remarkable wartime exploits.
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Wolf of the Deep
- By Sammi on 08-18-07
By: Stephen Fox