Two centuries before the daring exploits of Navy SEALs and Marine Raiders captured the public imagination, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps were already engaged in similarly perilous missions: raiding pirate camps, attacking enemy ships in the dark of night, and striking enemy facilities and resources on shore. Even John Paul Jones, father of the American navy, saw such irregular operations as critical to naval warfare. With Jones’s own experience as a starting point, Benjamin Armstrong sets out to take irregular naval warfare out of the shadow of the blue-water battles that dominate naval history. This book, the first historical study of its kind, makes a compelling case for raiding and irregular naval warfare as key elements in the story of American sea power. Beginning with the Continental Navy, Small Boats and Daring Men traces maritime missions through the wars of the early republic, from the coast of modern-day Libya to the rivers and inlets of the Chesapeake Bay. At the same time, Armstrong examines the era’s conflicts with nonstate enemies and threats to American peacetime interests along Pacific and Caribbean shores. Armstrong brings a uniquely informed perspective to his subject; and his work—with reference to original naval operational reports, sailors’ memoirs and diaries, and officers’ correspondence—is at once an exciting narrative of danger and combat at sea and a thoroughgoing analysis of how these events fit into concepts of American sea power. Offering a critical new look at the naval history of the Early American era, this book also raises fundamental questions for naval strategy in the twenty-first century.

In this wonderful and honest book, The X Factor winner and bona fide pop star Sam Bailey tells her unique story and reveals what happens when you have the courage to follow your dreams. Born in south-east London, Sam always loved to sing and was encouraged by her mother to enter talent shows from an early age. Overcoming her shyness, Sam soon realized her true calling in life was to entertain and perform, and she slowly began taking steps along the rocky road to super-stardom. From the ups and downs of working as an entertainer at a Pontins holiday camp, to the endless grind of the cruise ship circuit, Sam always dreamed of making it to the top. Years later she began work as a prison officer and continued pursuing her singing career in fits and starts. Inspired to audition for the UK's biggest talent show, Sam stood in front of The X Factor panel and sang '?Listen' by one of her favourite artists, Beyoncé. Fast forward a year later and Sam was supporting Beyoncé on her world tour, having seen both her debut single and album go straight to number one. From the grind of the amateur singing circuit and the highs and lows of The X Factor, to the pressures of juggling a music career while being a full-time mum, Daring to Dream is a roller coaster ride of emotion and a wonderful story of courage and sheer determination.