An interesting 19th century Navy officer
Uriah P. Levy helped end flogging in the Navy, suffered from anti-Semitic attacks, and was court-martialed six times (he disliked being insulted).
Uriah P. Levy helped end flogging in the Navy, suffered from anti-Semitic attacks, and was court-martialed six times (he disliked being insulted). He was demoted once, and dismissed from the Navy once, but was reinstated, and wound up as the American commander in the Mediterranean. At age 61 he married a teenager.
You don’t get careers like that these days.
Uriah P. Levy helped end flogging in the Navy, suffered from anti-Semitic attacks, and was court-martialed six times (he disliked being insulted). He was demoted once, and dismissed from the Navy once, but was reinstated, and wound up as the American commander in the Mediterranean. At age 61 he married a teenager.
You don’t get careers like that these days.
My daughter, a graduate student in American history, brought his story to my attention.
To top it off, she notes, he bought the home of his hero, Thomas Jefferson, and sought to restore it.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
More from Foreign Policy

Is Cold War Inevitable?
A new biography of George Kennan, the father of containment, raises questions about whether the old Cold War—and the emerging one with China—could have been avoided.

So You Want to Buy an Ambassadorship
The United States is the only Western government that routinely rewards mega-donors with top diplomatic posts.

Can China Pull Off Its Charm Offensive?
Why Beijing’s foreign-policy reset will—or won’t—work out.

Turkey’s Problem Isn’t Sweden. It’s the United States.
Erdogan has focused on Stockholm’s stance toward Kurdish exile groups, but Ankara’s real demand is the end of U.S. support for Kurds in Syria.