The Golden Age of Piracy, David Head
The Golden Age of Piracy, David Head
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The Golden Age of Piracy
The Rise, Fall, and Enduring Popularity of Pirates

Author: David Head

Narrator: David Colacci

Unabridged: 9 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/26/2024


Synopsis

Twelve authors shed new light on the true history and enduring mythology of seventeenth– and eighteenth–century pirates in this anthology of scholarly essays.

The twelve entries in The Golden Age of Piracy discuss why pirates thrived in the seas of the New World, how pirates operated their plundering ventures, how governments battled piracy, and when and why piracy declined. Separating Hollywood myth from historical fact, these essays bring the real pirates of the Caribbean to life with a level of rigor and insight rarely applied to the subject.

The Golden Age of Piracy also delves into the enduring status of pirates as pop culture icons. Audiences have devoured stories about cutthroats such as Blackbeard and Henry Morgan since before Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island. By looking at the ideas of gender and sexuality surrounding pirate stories, the renewed interest in hunting for pirate treasure, and the construction of pirate myths, the contributing authors tell a new story about the dangerous men, and a few dangerous women, who terrorized the high seas.

About David Head

David Head is a lecturer of history at the University of Central Florida and the author of Privateers of the Americas: Spanish American Privateering from the United States in the Early Republic.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Emma

This is a book with a lot of good facts about pirates. It is also one of the most boring books I have ever read, which given the subject matter is quite the achievement.......more

Goodreads review by Cindy

The scholarly essays in this collection examine both historical pirates and those in popular culture. Although the focus is on piracy in the Caribbean, the time perspective is broader, extending from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Some analyze how what we have learned from the past can......more

Goodreads review by Kyle

5/10 A collection of essays about Caribbean and Atlantic piracy between the 16th and 18th century. The book is broken into 4 sections. The first deals with the political and economic forces that drove piracy in early European contest of the Caribbean. The second discusses how when those forces ended......more

Goodreads review by Luis

“The Golden Age of Piracy” nos muestra a los verdaderos Piratas del Caribe, personajes históricos que hoy en día se tienen muy presentes en la cultura popular. El libro es un recuento de doce diferentes ensayos escritos por dice diferentes autores; cada uno de ellos explicando la historia de los pir......more

Goodreads review by Dylan

Solid collection, but not great as a first book on the topic; read some Cordingly or Konstam first and then come here to read some great scholarly discussion "between the lines" of the conventional histories.......more