Product Description

"A fluent, intelligent history...give[s] the reader a feel for the human quirks and harsh demands of life at sea." Before the ink was dry on the U.S. Constitution, the establishment of a permanent military became the most divisive issue facing the new government. The foundersparticularly Jefferson, Madison, and Adamsdebated fiercely. Would a standing army be the thin end of dictatorship? Would a navy protect from pirates or drain the treasury and provoke hostility? Britain alone had hundreds of powerful warships. From the decision to build six heavy frigates, through the cliff-hanger campaign against Tripoli, to the war that shook the world in 1812, Ian W. Toll tells this grand tale with the political insight of and the narrative flair of Patrick O'Brian.