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Evan Thomas

John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy Paperback – May 10, 2004

by Evan Thomas (Author)

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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.” 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.

Print length

416 pages
Language

English
Publication date

May 10, 2004
Dimensions

6.13 x 1.04 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0743258045
ISBN-13

978-0743258043
Lexile measure

1170L
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5 star		63%
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gjbailey

Exciting Biography

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2019

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John Paul Jones was a lot of things. The author of this book does an excellent job of sketching the many facets of Jones's character and the implications of his actions. This book allows the reader to understand Jones's place in Revolutionary History and his various contributions. The sea battles are vividly and excitingly described. The only thing missing from this book is a visual diagram of a basic late 18th century ship. The book uses a lot of seafaring technical vocabulary and it would be illustrative to flip back to a diagram to understand what Jones and his crew were doing when they moved about the ship. All in all, this book is a worthy read.

5 people found this helpful

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Tim and Mel

Informative and Honest but not the

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2020

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Incredibly detailed account of a giant figure in American history.
It’s as captivating as it can be.
My critique is that much of the content seemed to repeat itself or felt familiar to something else that happened earlier in the life of John Paul Jones but that’s what the author has to work with so I appreciate his commitment to being an impartial biographer.
Jones himself played an important and underrated role in the founding of America and his recognition was limited perhaps due to his own abrasive tendencies and to the politics of the time.

2 people found this helpful

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Jason G

a self destructive naval hero

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2013

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Heroic, visionary, social climber, patriot, depressive, difficult to get along with others, a victor and self destructive are words that can be used to describe the life of John Paul Jones in Evan Thomas now decade old biography. This is a solid, relatively short work that is accesible to the general reader who has interest in naval warfare, the American founding and the late 18th century. Thomas, besides a career as a journalist and writer, is a high amateur sailer, and is able to articulate nautical terminology to laymen, while still technical enough to ensure the accuracy of his presentation of seamanship.

This book covers the full breadth of Jones' life, from his birth in the southwest of Scotland, being the son of a senior gardener on an aristocratic estate, to his move to Virginia, his adventures as a merchant seamen, his aligning himself with the Continental cause in the War for Independence, and detail about his sailing campaigns against the British mainland during the war. Afterwards, Thomas details Jones' boredom with peacetime life, and his alienation of everyone he came into contact with in his last years, ending up in his sad, lonely demise in Paris.

The most interesting writing here, as you might expect, deals with the leadership of Jones as a US Navy raider along the British coast in 1779. While having little tactical implications, Jones' raids on the coast and on ships, had useful strategic ends, as it encouraged the British populace, in the aftermath of the Saratoga defeat in New York, to reconsider a long fight against a faraway foe, who was tenacious enough to send modern raiders against the British Isles.

The examination of why Jones chose to align himself with the Continental cause is looked at in depth in this book, because it is a bit mystifying on paper, but Thomas does go to some length, in his examination of Jones' character, to show that his streak of independence, vainglory, and emotional passion matched with what he thought the American patriot cause should be. Many of the political leaders in America loved his naval leadership at sea, but grew very tired of him, when they actually had to deal with his many proposals, demands and even accusations. This makes even more sense, when in later years, the Russian government grew equally tired of Jones' odd and glory hound like behavior, leading to some conclusions based on several strong pieces of data about the threads that at times led Jones to both spectacular succes and spectacular personal failure.

As an introductory work to this early leader of the US Navy, the reader should appreciate why he became the symbol of that service, as an indomitable, scrappy, ever fighting leader. The reader should also see why Jones' personal demons led to its sad demise, as those threads were present all his life.

7 people found this helpful

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Solid Story About A Spectacular Man

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2004

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What a difference half a decade can make! In 1774 John Paul was a destitute ex-slave-ship captain on the lam, forsaking his native Scotland for the unknown British colonies of North America. In 1779, that same man, now known as John Paul Jones, was the most feared pirate of the British Isles, the victor of an incredible sea battle which made his name across the Continent, and the first great figure of what would become the American Navy.

Evan Thomas's "John Paul Jones" begins aboard of Bonhomme Richard, a crank Indiaman under Jones' fractious command, just as it is about to engage the British man-of-war Serapis off England's Flamborough Head. Cannons are primed, sand is spread over the decks to keep them from becoming slick with blood, and the doctor in the cockpit lays out buckets and saws for the surgery ahead. The Bonhomme Richard would not survive the battle, but Jones would emerge victorious anyway, plucking victory from the jaws of defeat by virtue of his grit and visionary fortitude.

Thomas makes a great story out of Jones' life. A senior writer with Newsweek, he is nothing if not readable, with attention for detail and a zest for the telling touch. After allowing a pair of lieutenants to hit up an earl for his silver, Jones goes out of his way to make amends, writing florid and flirtatious letters to the earl's wife and then, finally, returning the silver. "The tea leaves were still inside the teapot," Thomas writes.

He offers some interesting insight into what made Jones tick. It's very engaging, and fits together, but as a shrink, Thomas is a good journalist. A lot of times he talks up some awful situation Jones faced, being passed over or calumnied by his Revolutionary brethren, and ascribes the result to Jones' overweening pride. Jones seems to have been a proud man, though not excessively so given his accomplishments or the age he lived in. He did tarry in Paris a bit long between battles, but he was also given some pretty lacking subordinates and superiors.

Thomas calls him "the father of the American Navy." It was interesting to read others here saying that John Barry deserves that title. I find myself agreeing with Thomas. Barry was an accomplished commander, and America was lucky to have him, but Jones captured the imagination in a way that would resonate through the centuries. He was quoted, erroneously but with ringing grandeur, by U.S. naval leaders scraping themselves off the sea floor after Pearl Harbor. He remains a figure of pride today. He may never have said "I have not yet begun to fight," but he sure walked the walk.

I would have liked Thomas to have laid off the dime-store Freud and focused a chapter on just how much of an outlier he was in the early American naval tradition. Thomas does mention Barry in a footnote, and speaks passingly of other decent captains such as Gustavus Conyngham, a privateer who took the fight to English shores before Jones, but most of his analysis of the Revolutionary Navy is so disparaging as to beg wonder at how the Americans won, Jones or no. It's entertaining reading of losers like John Manley and Dudley Saltonstall, and no doubt accurate, but just how much of a sorry lot was the first U.S. Navy? We are told that when Jones engaged the Serapis, "no captain of an American navy ship had ever defeated and captured a British man-of-war of any real size or strength." But how unusual were Jones' successes? My sense is that when you include his capture of General Burgoyne's winter uniforms in 1776, and his harassment of British trade ships off the coasts of Nova Scotia and the home islands, Jones simply towers over his contemporaries. Just how much so would have made for good reading.

Instead, we get a lengthy examination of his poor record as a lothario, cadging young women, some disturbingly young, and writing verse of obvious below-the-beltline focus. He places his trust in charlatans and spies, and Thomas has at him for it, but the feeling that he may have been more of a victim of his own patriotism and honest zeal for liberty is not adequately addressed.

One interesting comparison Thomas makes all-too-briefly is with another American military commander, Benedict Arnold. It can be argued that Jones did at sea what Arnold did on land, giving legitimacy to the Revolutionary struggle via a blazing triumph against all odds. Both were traduced by scheming cohorts, and underappreciated by superiors. "But unlike Arnold, Jones remained steadfast to the American cause," Thomas notes.

That seems a point worth remembering. Even opting out of the U.S. Navy itself and becoming an American privateer, as many did, would have allowed Jones to make more money without committing treason. But he didn't. That's more worth study than his dalliances with the ladies of Holland or France. Thomas writes about Jones with appropriate zest and awe, and his book is a true joy, but its a bit of a missed opportunity too, in not getting past the trendy cynicism of our time and figuring out what makes for a genuine patriot. It's a good biography in the warts-and-all tradition of our day, just not definitive.

19 people found this helpful

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Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2016

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very good, worth a read if you like the subject.

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 12, 2015

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Great book

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