The Pirate Coast

Download or read book The Pirate Coast written by Richard Zacks and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2005-06-01 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A real-life thriller -- the true story of the unheralded American who brought the Barbary Pirates to their knees. In an attempt to stop the legendary Barbary Pirates of North Africa from hijacking American ships, William Eaton set out on a secret mission to overthrow the government of Tripoli. The operation was sanctioned by President Thomas Jefferson, who at the last moment grew wary of "intermeddling" in a foreign government and sent Eaton off without proper national support. Short on supplies, given very little money and only a few men, Eaton and his mission seemed doomed from the start. He triumphed against all odds, recruited a band of European mercenaries in Alexandria, and led them on a march across the Libyan Desert. Once in Tripoli, the ragtag army defeated the local troops and successfully captured Derne, laying the groundwork for the demise of the Barbary Pirates. Now, Richard Zacks brings this important story of America's first overseas covert op to life.

Download or read book The Desert and the Sea written by Michael Scott Moore and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-05-28 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Scott Moore, a journalist and the author of Sweetness and Blood, incorporates personal narrative and rigorous investigative journalism in this profound and revelatory memoir of his three-year captivity by Somali pirates—a riveting,thoughtful, and emotionally resonant exploration of foreign policy, religious extremism, and the costs of survival. In January 2012, having covered a Somali pirate trial in Hamburg for Spiegel Online International—and funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting—Michael Scott Moore traveled to the Horn of Africa to write about piracy and ways to end it. In a terrible twist of fate, Moore himself was kidnapped and subsequently held captive by Somali pirates. Subjected to conditions that break even the strongest spirits—physical injury, starvation, isolation, terror—Moore’s survival is a testament to his indomitable strength of mind. In September 2014, after 977 days, he walked free when his ransom was put together by the help of several US and German institutions, friends, colleagues, and his strong-willed mother. Yet Moore’s own struggle is only part of the story: The Desert and the Sea falls at the intersection of reportage, memoir, and history. Caught between Muslim pirates, the looming threat of Al-Shabaab, and the rise of ISIS, Moore observes the worlds that surrounded him—the economics and history of piracy; the effects of post-colonialism; the politics of hostage negotiation and ransom; while also conjuring the various faces of Islam—and places his ordeal in the context of the larger political and historical issues. A sort of Catch-22 meets Black Hawk Down, The Desert and the Sea is written with dark humor, candor, and a journalist’s clinical distance and eye for detail. Moore offers an intimate and otherwise inaccessible view of life as we cannot fathom it, brilliantly weaving his own experience as a hostage with the social, economic, religious, and political factors creating it. The Desert and the Sea is wildly compelling and a book that will take its place next to titles like Den of Lions and Even Silence Has an End.

Download or read book Pirates, Privateers, and Rebel Raiders of the Carolina Coast written by Lindley S. Butler and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2015-12-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: North Carolina possesses one of the longest, most treacherous coastlines in the United States, and the waters off its shores have been the scene of some of the most dramatic episodes of piracy and sea warfare in the nation's history. Now, Lindley Butler brings this fascinating aspect of the state's maritime heritage vividly to life. He offers engaging biographical portraits of some of the most famous pirates, privateers, and naval raiders to ply the Carolina waters. Covering 150 years, from the golden age of piracy in the 1700s to the extraordinary transformation of naval warfare ushered in by the Civil War, Butler sketches the lives of eight intriguing characters: the pirate Blackbeard and his contemporary Stede Bonnet; privateer Otway Burns and naval raider Johnston Blakeley; and Confederate raiders James Cooke, John Maffitt, John Taylor Wood, and James Waddell. Penetrating the myths that have surrounded these legendary figures, he uncovers the compelling true stories of their lives and adventures.

Download or read book Pirates of the Atlantic written by Dan Conlin and published by Formac Publishing Company Limited. This book was released on 2009-10-16 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The reality beyond the myths and stories about pirates operating off the Canadian coast.

Download or read book Blackbeard and Other Pirates of the Atlantic Coast written by Nancy Roberts and published by Blair. This book was released on 1993 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eighteen swashbuckling sea robbers brought to life.

Download or read book Pirates of New Jersey written by Mark P. Donnelly and published by Stackpole Books. This book was released on 2010 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Legendary figures of the Golden Age of Piracy. Stories of great battles. Contains a Glossary of pirate ships and nautical items.

Download or read book The Wars of the Barbary Pirates written by Gregory Fremont-Barnes and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-06-06 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The wars against the Barbary pirates not only signaled the determination of the United States to throw off its tributary status, liberate its citizens from slavery in North Africa, and reassert its right to trade freely upon the seas: they enabled America to regain its sense of national dignity. The wars also served as a catalyst for the development of a navy with which America could project its newly acquired power thousands of miles away. By the time the fighting was over the young republic bore the unmistakable marks of a nation destined to play a major role in international affairs.