John Paul Jones
Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy
Simon & Schuster · Print & ebook · May 10, 2004
The New York Times bestseller from master biographer Evan Thomas brings to life the tumultuous story of the father of the American Navy.
We earn from qualifying purchases.
- Who it’s for
- A vivid naval biography brings the danger of the Age of Sail into close view.
- Themes
- Age of Sail naval warfare, American Revolution, Personal glory and principle
- Pacing
- Fast
Nearest books
Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.
John AdamsNelson Runger, David McCullough60% matchShares Revolutionary America (1775-1800)
Blue LatitudesTony Horwitz52% matchShares Aviation & Nautical Lives
Commander Will CushingJamie Malanowski59% matchShares Naval History
John HancockWillard Sterne Randall60% matchShares Revolutionary America (1775-1800)
His ExcellencyJoseph J. Ellis56% matchShares Revolutionary America (1775-1800)
Memoir of a Revolutionary SoldierJoseph Plumb Martin58% matchShares Revolutionary America (1775-1800)
Born to Be HangedKeith Thomson55% matchShares Naval History
The Fleet at Flood TidePete Larkin, James D. Hornfischer54% matchShares Naval History
For younger readers: The Notorious Benedict Arnold, King George: What Was His Problem?, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
Start with three books, and this one can be the first.
Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.
Start with this bookAbout this book
The New York Times bestseller from master biographer Evan Thomas brings to life the tumultuous story of the father of the American Navy. 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.”
Continue reading
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.
History Under Sail
A vivid naval biography brings the danger of the Age of Sail into close view.
Come here for
- John Paul Jones in the heat of battle
- A life shaped by glory and principle
Expect
- A gripping account of the 1779 clash with Serapis
- Revolutionary-era history told through a sailor’s life
Where it sits
| Revolutionary America (1775-1800) | 73% |
|---|---|
| Naval History | 60% |
| Aviation & Nautical Lives | 38% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Military Lives
- Naval History
- Revolutionary America (1775-1800)
- Authors
- Evan Thomas
- Publisher
- Simon & Schuster
- Published
- May 10, 2004
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Age of Sail naval warfare · American Revolution · Personal glory and principle
- Reading lane
- Military Lives