John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy Book

A solid, readable and well-written biography.

The narrative is crisp, balanced and entertaining, and Thomas covers Jones' life from his birth in Scotland to his move to Virginia, his time as a merchant seaman, his joining of the revolutionaries, his ties to Franklin and Adams, and his naval campaigns against the British in European waters. He then looks at how bored Jones was with peacetime, his alienation of people afterwards, his service in the Russian navy, and his lonely death in Paris.

The most interesting part of the book deals with Jones' cruises around the British Isles. These had no real impact on the outcome of the war, but Thomas ably shows the psychological impact they had on both sides of the Atlantic. Thomas also looks at how ambitious, far-seeing, and heroic Jones could be as well as how vainglorious, naive, depressive and difficult. He does a great job covering Jones' visionary character and his clashes with fellow officers, with the bureaucracy and with the status quo, and how difficult it was for Jones to bring his vision across.

There aren't too many problems. At one point George Patton's revolvers are called as having pearl grips, even though they were ivory. In all, an insightful, engaging and well-researched work.