Captives and Countrymen: Barbary Slavery and the American Public, 1785-1816
Peskin's splendid book gives the reader a new way to look at the Barbary piracy.(John A. C. GreppinTimes Literary Supplement)Peskin's work should be welcomed as providing an important piece to the larger unfolding story of Western interaction with the Arab world.(Paul BaeplerNew England Quarterly)After September 11 2001, many books have explored the clash between the United States and the Barbary States in the years bridging the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, seeking the traces of early national engagement in the Muslim world... [Peskin] finally moves beyond these publications, bringing both new sources and new ideas into play... The debate over the Barbary Wars was pivotal in American contemporary politics and public opinion.(Marco SioliJournal of American Studies)Captives and Countrymenis an important contribution to our understanding of the public sphere, nationalism, and imperiialism in the early republic.(Andrew M. SchocketRegister of the Kentucky Historical Society)Peskin provides an important contribution to the understanding of the development of American nationalism.(Paul A. GiljeAmerican Historical Review)A well-researched, closely argued book from which both general readers and specialists alike will benefit.(Franklin T. LambertDiplomatic History)