| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Uncle Sam in Barbary: A Diplomatic History. By Richard B. Parker. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. xxx, 285 pp. $59.95, ISBN 0-8130-2696-2.)
Richard B. Parker, a retired diplomat who served as ambassador to Algeria, Lebanon, and Morocco, is the first historian with the background and knowledge of the Arabs to explain the first encounter of the United States with Islam meaningfully. Parker, who is fluent in Arabic, uncovered extensive new materials for his study.	1
Parker's intention is to dispel some of the misunderstandings of Americans, and historians, about this first encounter with the so-called Barbary States. The book's title is somewhat misleading. Roughly three-fourths of the book relates to Algeria. Tripoli, Tunis, and Morocco are dispatched in a single chapter. Parker focuses on the American hostages (three captains and eighteen mates and men) taken by Algeria in 1785 and the efforts of the Americans to bargain for their release. It was a common practice of all European states to pay ransom for their hostages, and the United States was no exception.	. . .

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