Don Yaeger

Do not waste your time. This actually deserves negative stars for the writing, but the cover is lovely so I'll let it have one.

This is extremely BAD history writing. (I would love to see what a professor would do to these authors over this.. crawling away doesn’t even BEGIN to cover it) There is little to no analysis or insight. It’s revisionist, Islamophobic, and worse its using history to suit a modern agenda. All huge no-no's. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. (I'm sparing you my extremely long rant. For what it's worth I began making notes of what was wrong in with this, then stopped as it was becoming more than an essay in itself. I ended up just putting it down.)

Had I known who the author was before I picked this up I wouldn’t have wasted my time. But I don’t watch Fox. Now I know better regarding these authors. I'm going to have to make a list of these types of authors so I'm not encountering them and having to go through this trauma again. Yes I wrote trauma. Otoh.. now I have had the opportunity to warn others.. so all is not lost andtake heed!!!

edited to add: It is a real shame because this is a very interesting topic, and with some real historical research work it could be very well addressed. That is why I picked it up. I was looking forward to some real historical research, analysis, and insight into this topic. It's a real shame this was not it. Also once again kudo's to the artist who did the cover.
… (mais)

I received an ARC of this title from School Library Journal in exchange for a fair and honest review.

When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, the Barbary pirates had been preying on merchant ships sailing in the Mediterranean’s international waters for centuries. Barbary pirates were from the north African countries of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. Nations, such as Great Britain and France, either had to pay exorbitant bribes or suffer the losses inflicted when the pirates raided their merchant ships. Merchant sailors would be held for ransom and merchandise would be sold to the highest bidder if the Barbary pirates attacked.

In the 1790s, America had made peace agreements with Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli that involved paying the equivalent of one-eighth of the new government’s annual expenditures to the Barbary pirate states. The treaties were signed against the advice of Jefferson, but he was able to convince George Washington and John Adams to continue building new ships to replace the ones that had gone out of service at the end of the Revolutionary War. The first three American ships were launched in 1797 and, by the time Jefferson was elected president in 1800, the Barbary states were already demanding increases in American tribute. Jefferson declined and sent the American ships as peacemakers rather than agents of war.

American ships blockaded the harbor of Tripoli in effort to avoid outright war, but, during a resupply errand, the USS Enterprise and the Tripoli clashed, with the American ship overwhelmingly defeating the Tripolitan ship. The policy of American appeasement was over, and a new era of American global influence was beginning.

This is a fast-paced young readers adaptation of the New York Times bestselling historical thriller, with back matter that includes a timeline, sources, and an index. Recommended for students who like other works by Kilmeade, the history of the U.S. Navy or factual accounts of piracy.… (mais)