"Our Pirate War" is a concise history of the first foreign war of the United States. The first five U.S. presidents all were challenged by attacks by North African Barbary pirate states from the end of the Revolutionary War until 1815. But Thomas Jefferson dealt with this most often as an American diplomat in Europe, as Secretary of State in the first administration of President George Washington, and as the third President. Jefferson expanded the infant American Navy, dispatched a fleet to the Mediterranean, and promoted and fired its commodores. His leadership and that of fellow Presidents Washington, Adams, Madison and Monroe set precedents for American diplomatic and naval leadership which carry on to this day. In the process, attacks by Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli were subdued and American trade and shipping gained strength in the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic coast of Europe.