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Title: Decatur's Wake
Subtitle: The Fateful Rivalry Behind the Lightning Defeat of Barbary Terror
Author: Daniel Wattenberg
Narrator: Kevin T. Collins
Format: Unabridged
Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
Language: English
Release date: 02-06-17
Publisher: Audible Studios
Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: History, Military
Publisher's Summary:
Since the founding of the United States, the Barbary pirates of North Africa threatened with impunity American lives, commerce, and honor on the high seas. But in 1815, Commodore Stephen Decatur led a charge to victory. The Second Barbary War, as it became known, helped define American foreign policy and consolidate its naval power.
In Decatur's Wake: The Fateful Rivalry Behind the Lightning Defeat of Barbary Terror, Daniel Wattenberg shows us how, while painting a portrait of the two senior officers turned mortal enemies who fought for a shot at personal redemption and a naval command of unprecedented scale and pivotal historical significance. Decatur's Wake is a rousing true narrative that crackles with the tension and torques with the surprise twists of a psychological thriller.
Daniel Wattenberg is the author of Decatur's Wake, a Kindle Single. He is a widely cited, award-winning cultural essayist, columnist, critic, investigative writer, and editor. His work has appeared in many magazines and newspapers, including the American Spectator, Atlantic.com, Civilization, the Daily Caller, Forbes FYI, George, National Review, Playboy, Reason, the Weekly Standard, the Arizona Republic, Baltimore Sun, New York Post and Washington Times. He served in the State Department in the bureaus of Inter-American Affairs and Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs and in the United States Information Agency at the US Mission to UNESCO and the US Embassy in Paris. He worked in the Merchant Marines in the engine room of a container ship. As the lead singer of punk-era New York bands, he appeared often at the historic CBGB and opened for the Ramones. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and daughter.
Critic Reviews:
"Brisk storytelling, evocative prose, and bravura action sequences." (Jay Winik, best-selling author of 1944 and April 1865)
Members Reviews:
This is excellent history as well as a great read
Mr. Wattenberg has written a riveting story about the Barbary pirates and the early US response to them. This is excellent history as well as a great read. This stuff is normally passed over in a paragraph in a high school text. But the Barbary pirates -- Muslim raiders -- were the reason Thomas Jefferson commissioned what became the US Navy. And taking them out -- making them leave American ships alone -- is a fine model for the kind of campaign needed to get today's Muslim terrorists to lay off. I hope Mr. Wattenberg chooses to elucidate other historic instances that didn't make it into the traditional American History narrative.
Well-writen, thoroughly researched
This was a great, quick read. I thoroughly enjoyed the story from start to finish. The vast majority of my history textbooks seemed to gloss over the Barbary Wars, so I was eager to learn more. Decatur's Wake did not disappoint. From the very beginning, it was obvious that the author spent a great deal of time researching this story. You'll be surprised by how much you'll learn in just 95 pages.
I am always fascinated to see how much information is out there (if you're willing to look for it). Official documents rarely tell the whole story.
