Villains of All Nations, Marcus Rediker
Villains of All Nations, Marcus Rediker
1 Rating(s)
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Villains of All Nations
Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age

Author: Marcus Rediker

Narrator: Cornell Womack

Unabridged: 7 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/26/2019


Synopsis

Villains of All Nations explores the 'Golden Age' of Atlantic piracy (1716-1726) and the infamous generation whose images underlie our modern, romanticized view of pirates.

Rediker introduces us to the dreaded black flag, the Jolly Roger; swashbuckling figures such as Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard; and the unnamed, unlimbed pirate who was likely Robert Louis Stevenson's model for Long John Silver in Treasure Island.

This history shows from the bottom up how sailors emerged from deadly working conditions on merchant and naval ships, turned pirate, and created a starkly different reality aboard their own ships, electing their officers, dividing their booty equitably, and maintaining a multinational social order. The real lives of this motley crew-which included cross-dressing women, people of color, and the'outcasts of all nations'-are far more compelling than contemporary myth.

About The Author

Marcus Rediker is professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is author of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea and coauthor of The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic, which won the International Labor History Association Book Prize in 2001. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is at work on a history of the slave ship.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Phil

Probably the best account of the Golden Age of piracy (1714-26) out there, and one I have read numerous times. Rediker does an excellent job in examining the social and economic conditions that helped lead to the explosion of piracy that rocked the mid-Atlantic and put it into context. This is from......more

Goodreads review by Natalie

This was a purely enjoyable read. Pirates live up to their reputation. There is absolutely some romanticization going on here. Rediker wants to justify a lot about what pirates did, saying it was for noble political reasons. And he provides many illustrative anecdotes that back up what he says. He d......more

Goodreads review by Jerome

After reading The Many-headed Hydra co-authored by Peter Linebaugh, I picked this book up. Although Rediker follows the same theme as that previous work, the tone of Villains of All Nations is more academic and less overtly political. That's not to say that Rediker does not continue the materialist......more


Quotes

Marcus Rediker knows pirates, and he knows how to tell a story. Villains of All Nations is a must read; don't wait for the movie! -Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination