What Uriah Levy achieved as a high-ranking Jewish officer in the United States Navy would have been remarkable if it had happened in 1945. The fact that it happened in the early 19th century is astounding -- and a testament to one ordinary man's extraordinary tenacity and courage. Commodore Levy achieves a kind of magic: this distant time and its people suddenly are alive, breathing beside us. The pages fly by, and with each page you feel a deepening sense of what it means, then and now, to live a life of integrity.
--Dara Horn, author of A Guide for the Perplexed

Commodore Uriah P. Levy was a larger-than-life figure who battled flogging in the navy, preserved Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, combated antisemitism, fought repeatedly for his honor, made a fortune, and late in life married his eighteen-year-old niece. His life is tailor-made for an historical novel, and, after years of painstaking research, Irving Litvag has written it -- a one-of-a-kind portrait of an early American Jewish hero.
--Jonathan D. Sarna, author of When General Grant Expelled the Jews

Commodore Levy is a remarkable work of nautical fiction, a rousing story based on a real-life character: a great nineteenth century Jewish American naval officer, intelligent, skillful, and full of courage, but often harassed by his bigoted superiors because of his religion, who rises from a non-commissioned sailing master to the highest rank in the pre-Civil War U. S. Navy.

--Sanford Sternlicht, Commander USN-Ret., emeritus professor of English, Syracuse University