Patrick's Introductions

Sample Introduction:
One of my favorite books is The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, for many reasons but particularly for Tolkien's skill at setting the scene and introducing his characters. This is the first three paragraphs of The Hobbit.

Chapter I: AN UNEXPECTED PARTY

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats—the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill—The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it—and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.

This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours’ respect, but he gained—well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.

My Introduction:

            In the first six months of 1801 Thomas Jefferson became President, the Bashaw of Tripoli declared war on the United States, and the U.S. Navy detached a squadron of frigates to the Mediterranean. While these evens happened in the order listed above, the time necessary for communication across the Atlantic meant that by the time the squadron commanded by Commodore Richard Dale reached Gibraltar and hailed two Tripolitan ships, they were unaware that the U.S. and Tripoli were at war. Jefferson had anticipated some hostilities with Tripoli and the other Barbary States and sent the squadron to maintain the peace if possible and to defend American shipping lines if not.

            Much of the First Barbary War can be characterized by the confusion and uncertainty Commodore Dale felt as he tried to determine whether the ships he met at Gibraltar were enemies of the United States, planning to capture American commercial vessels in the Atlantic. Lengthy communication times and the simple inability for civilian leaders in Washington to command fleets off the coast of North Africa effectively forced the American leadership to rely on their military and naval commanders. This was exacerbated by Jefferson’s desire for hasty action on a pressing issue in early 1801 when Congress would not meet for months. Since Congress had not yet officially declared war on Tripoli, when the initial squadron left for the Mediterranean they were only able to patrol American shipping lines and act defensively, rather than seek out raiding parties from Tripoli.

            For the next four years the Americans and Tripolitans found themselves in a bloody stalemate; the American fleet, bolstered by congressional action, blockaded Tripoli itself but refrained from capturing the city. The Tripolitans maintained a defense of their city, and they only sued for peace after several intense battles in the Bay of Tripoli and the capture of Derna (a city under the jurisdiction of the Bashaw of Tripoli) by American marines and mercenaries. While the war ended Tripolitan attacks on shipping in the short run, American attention would quickly be diverted to tensions with the British and Canadian leadership, leaving the Mediterranean open for potential piracy. The Tripolitan War would soon become the First Barbary War.