In the first U.S. covert mission to overthrow a foreign nation, President Jefferson dispatched an unlikely diplomat, forty-year-old William Eaton, to Tripoli to free three hundred American hostages. Eaton achieved a remarkable victory on “the shores of Tripoli,” but for him, the aftermath was not so sweet. Richard Zacks specializes in offbeat history. He is the author of the bestselling History Laid Bare and The Pirate Hunter , chosen by Time as one of the five best nonfiction books of 2002. Raymond Todd is an actor and director in the theater as well as a poet and documentary filmmaker. He plays jazz trombone for the Leatherstocking quartet, an ensemble that gets its name from one of his favorite Blackstone narrations, The Deerslayer . Todd lives in New York.