Thomas is currently the assistant managing editor of Newsweek. With the skill appropriate to a polished journalist, Thomas chronicles the short, but glorious, life of a brilliant, but frustratingly difficult, man, who was the first American naval hero. Jones was born in Scotland and came to America with little more than driving ambition and an immense ego. Despite a prickly personality dominated by stubbornness and self-righteousness, Jones quickly rose to a command position in the new American navy. Thomas is at his best in his vivid description of Jones' famous victory over the British warship Serapis in the North Sea. This is a stunning, blow-by-blow account of a titanic battle in which Jones triumphed against superior firepower. Unfortunately, Jones' exploits during the Revolutionary War were the high points of his career. With compassion and a feel for the essential sadness at the core of the man, Thomas shows his gradual decline. This is a fine account of the life of an admirable, but deeply flawed, man. --Jay Freeman

John Paul Jones has not been a neglected hero in the literature of the 20th century. From the great amount that has been written about him, two works stand out: Lincoln Lorenz's John Paul Jones: Fighter for Freedom and Glory (1943) and Samuel Eliot Morison's outstanding John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1959). Thomas has crafted a fine contribution, remarkably refreshing in its objectivity, to Jones's ever expanding bibliography. Jones is shown as a great naval commander, yet with many character flaws. The six-page bibliography is an important reference source for anyone who seeks detailed information on John Paul Jones's life. Featuring 38 pages of footnotes and 14 illustrations, this book, although not of the stature of Morison's work, should be a welcome addition to any undergraduate collection. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Public and undergraduate collections. B. H. Groene formerly, Southeastern Louisiana University

This superlative biography from Newsweek assistant managing editor Thomas (Robert Kennedy, His Life) can hold its own on the shelf with Samuel Eliot Morison's Pulitzer Prize-winning Jones bio, A Sailor's Story. It does not add much to our knowledge of the events of its subject's life (from his birth in lowland Scotland in 1747 to his lonely death in revolutionary Paris in 1792), but it adds interpretations and dimensions to practically every event that has been recorded elsewhere. Jones's reception in the rebellious colonies, for example, where he arrived as a fugitive from justice, was much helped by his Masonic affiliations. His (frequently successful) pursuit of the ladies raised eyebrows, and his conduct during the famous ship to ship engagement between Bonhomme Richard and Serapis was more stubborn than sound. The British Captain Pearson was deservedly knighted for saving his valuable convoy from Jones's attack, and Captain Landais of the frigate Alliance may have mistaken his target in poor visibility when he fired some damaging broadsides into Jones's ship, rather than being treacherous or mad as tradition would have it. Jones was clearly prickly, socially ambitious, a difficult subordinate (he alienated every American diplomat in France except Benjamin Franklin) and a martinet as a superior. Jones was also a superb practical seaman (the survival of the frigate Ariel in a hurricane is only the most gripping example), a charismatic combat leader and a man with a vision of the American naval future. Both Jones and his latest biographer can justly be praised as masters of their respective crafts. (May) Forecast: More accessible to a contemporary audience or readers without much background knowledge about the sea, Thomas's book is a better place to start for many of them than Morison's. Without a major hook, look for a core of navy and Americana readers to seek this one out. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

John Paul Jones's historical importance lies less in spectacular naval engagements and more in bringing the American revolution to the shores of Great Britain, fueling an antiwar movement in that nation to end Britain's costly stalemated effort to crush the revolution. Born in Scotland under modest circumstances, John Paul went to sea at 13 and added "Jones" to his name to cover his past when, as a merchant ship captain, he had "mistakenly" killed a leader of a potential mutiny. Arriving in colonial America on the eve of the revolution, Jones seized the opportunity to gain glory as an American naval officer. Thomas, Newsweek's assistant managing editor and the author of several books, including Robert Kennedy: His Life, draws the reader deep into Jones's character, sexual escapades, shipboard life, bloody sea battles, and various military adventures. In the first good, balanced biography in several years for both lay readers and scholars, Thomas masterfully narrates the life of a clever, bold, social-climbing hero. Recommended to public and academic libraries.-Charles L. Lumpkins, Pennsylvania State Univ., State College (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Sturdy, seaworthy life of the Scottish-born hero of the American Revolution, whom John Adams characterized as "the most ambitious and intriguing officer in the American Navy." Jones, already a legend in his early 30s thanks to his daring exploits aboard the Bonhomme Richard, wasn't exactly forgotten at the end of the Revolution, although he felt ill-used when Congress ignored his offer to establish a naval academy and make America a maritime power and instead auctioned off the Continental Navy's few surviving frigates. He was given to mercurial moods and feelings of persecution anyway, writes Newsweek assistant managing editor Thomas (Robert Kennedy, 2000, etc.), very much like his contemporary Benedict Arnold, whom Thomas considers to have been Jones's "closest rival . . . for drive and resourcefulness"--adding that "unlike Arnold, Jones remained steadfast to the American cause," though both complained about official indifference to their brilliance and about "commands offered and withdrawn." Jones therefore stalked off to Paris after the war against England, where he nursed his wounds before finding work as an admiral in the navy of the Russian tsarina Catherine the Great. There, he found himself embroiled in political intrigues of many kinds, though his undoing would prove to be an unseemly encounter with a 12-year-old girl that naturally enough, "left him vulnerable to scandal." Shunned and disgraced, he returned to Paris, where he died in 1792 at the age of 45--just a few days, ironically enough, before a commission arrived from Congress for him to go and have sharp words with the Dey of Algiers about the matter of the Barbary Pirates. Thomas's account of these events--and whether Jones ever really said "I have not yet begun to fight"--is skillfully rendered, and his blend of period detail and modern psychobiography just right for the job. Fine slice of American military and revolutionary history--good for commodores in the making, too. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.