Before the ink was dry on the Constitution of the United States, the establishment of a permanent military had become the most divisive issue facing the young republic. Would a standing army be the thin end of dictatorship? Would a navy protect American commerce from the vicious depredations of the Barbary pirates, or would it drain the treasury and provoke hostilities with the great powers? How large a navy would suffice? The founders -- particularly Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, and Adams -- debated these questions fiercely and switched sides more than once. In 1794, President Washington signed legislation authorizing the construction of six heavy frigates. The unique combination of power, speed and tactical versatility -- smaller than a battleship and larger than a sloop -- that all navies sent on their most daring missions. It was the first great appropriation of federal money and the first demonstration of the power of the new central government, calling for the creation of entirely new domestic industries, and the extraction of natural resources from the backwoods of Maine to the uninhabited coastal islands of Georgia. From the complicated politics of the initial decision, through the cliffhanger campaign against Tripoli, to the war that shook the world in 1812, Ian W. Toll tells this grand tale with the political insight of Founding Brothers and a narrative flair worthy of Patrick O'Brian. In the words of Henry Adams, the 1812 encounter between USS Constitution and HMS Guerriere "raised the United States in one half hour to the rank of a first class power in the world."

伊恩•托爾（Ian W. Toll）

美國曆史作傢、海軍曆史學者。1989年在喬治敦大學獲曆史學位，1995年獲哈佛大學的公共政策碩士學位，他曾短暫進入政界，之後又投身金融行業，曾在多傢銀行任分析師，但一直對從事曆史研究的夢想念念不忘。2002年他開始專心從事寫作。2006年，他以一部《六艦》一鳴驚人，贏得廣泛贊譽。此後托爾又寫作瞭“太平洋戰爭三部麯”，包括《激戰太平洋》《徵服浪潮》和《諸神的黃昏》，前兩部已經齣版（中文版即將由中信齣版集團•新思文化齣版），均廣受好評。托爾還擔任國傢人文基金會評審委員，美國國務院文化大使，以及海軍戰爭學院講師。