James Tertius de Kay - Böcker

His Majesty's Frigate Macedonian was launched at Woolwich in 1810, at the height of the wars against Napoleon; its remains, refashioned as a seaside hotel, burned in the Bronx in 1922. It is barely remembered now, but in its time the Macedonian was recognized as the most important prize ever taken by the American navy--a distinction it holds to this day. The history of this one ship, recommissioned USS Macedonian after its capture from the British in the War of 1812, is an engrossing tale filled with battles, chases, near mutiny, and an engaging cast of commanders. The Macedonian played a prominent role in such major events as the liberation of Latin America, the war against the slave trade, the great Irish famine, and the American Civil War. Not just an entertaining narrative, however, the biography of this extraordinary ship is also a detailed portrait of gunboat diplomacy in the nineteenth century.

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Everyone knows that left-handers are more creative (Leonardo da Vinci), smarter (Ben Franklin), funnier (Carol Burnett), tougher (Billy the Kid), more musical (C.P.E. Bach), more athletic (Martina Navratilova), more adventurous (Buzz Aldrin), more tuned-in (Joan of Arc), handsomer (Cary Grant), more ambitious (Alexander the Great), braver (Lord Nelson), more successful (Bob Dylan), and haughtier (Queen Victoria) than northpaws. The World's Greatest left-Handers is the book that proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

In the summer of 1814 a squadron of Royal Navy ships attacked the tiny Connecticut seaport of Stonington, and declared its intention of destroying the town. Over the next four days the British barraged the nearly defenseless civilian population with some fifty tons of explosives, before mysteriously upping anchor and sailing away, leaving Stonington largely intact.Though a mere footnote in America's early naval history, the Battle of Stonington has remained a source of curiosity for two hundred years. Why did the British single out Stonington and then fail so miserably at their goal? To solve the mystery of this curious battle, and explain Britain's failure to level the town, the author takes the reader back some forty years to the Revolution to unfold a surprisingly complex set of circumstances involving people on both sides of the Atlantic and across America. Drawing on contemporary news accounts, secret Royal Navy correspondence, and other primary sources, he investigates events leading up to the puzzling attack and then recounts the exciting details of the battle itself. It is a memorable, masterly told story of brave and honorable people, divided loyalties, and new ideas fighting traditional, old-world values.As the book develops, James Tertius de Kay introduces a fascinating cast of characters that ranks with the best of fiction: Thomas Hardy, the hero of Trafalgar who led the British attack; Jeremiah Holmes, an American merchant captain who led the defense of Stonington; Stephen Decatur and Robert Fulton, two well-known American patriots; and a number of enterprising smugglers and spies. At the same time de Kay pays tribute to the significant roles played by new naval weapons--American submarine vessels and torpedoes, British rockets and bombs--that revolutionized the art of war.The Battle of Stonington brings all these elements into brilliant focus to provide a lively narrative history not just of the events at Stonington but of the entire period. It is a compelling, often humorous story.

This is the story of a very different Franklin Delano Roosevelt from the one usually found in the history books. This is a much younger, untested FDR, a physically active, pre-polio FDR, as seen during his early years in Washington, learning the complexities of gaining and exercising power as Woodrow Wilson’s ambitious Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He arrives in Washington as a somewhat shallow, inexperienced political neophyte possessed of little more than a famous name, but by the time he leaves the Navy eight years later he will have transformed himself into a seasoned professional, wise to the ways of power, a visionary ready and eager to take his place on the world stage.FDR’s early years in Washington also include the most tumultuous period in his personal life, when, caught in a difficult marriage, he is forced to choose between his own personal happiness and his towering political ambitions. He must deal at close quarters with Congress, with the Administration, with the military, with big business. Lastly, but crucially, he confronts himself, learning something about his potential, his limitations, and his ambition. Such self-knowledge is perhaps the most valuable single gift that a leader of a democracy can hope for.