The History of Pirates
Book Description: Piracy flourished in the early eighteenth century, producing many of the pirates whose names have gripped our imaginations: Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, and Bartholomew Roberts, to name a few. Yet piracy existed long before Blackbeard's name struck terror in the hearts of merchant seamen - Julius Caesar was captured by pirates - and it still exists today; boats sailing through the South China Sea are regularly attacked by modern-day buccaneers.
The History of Pirates traces piracy from the seas of antiquity to the New World and beyond. It is a thorough, authoritative, and memorable portrait of the fascinating world of pirates. Detailed maps bear vivid testimony to the far-ranging exploits of these capricious, sometimes charismatic, and frequently bloodthirsty seadogs and highwaymen of the oceans.
Subjects: World history, History, History - General History, History: World, Maritime History, History / Modern / 18th Century, Modern - 18th Century,
The History of Pirates
The History of Pirates is a great book on pirates! A must have for all pirate buffs!
Good Introduction to Pirates
"History of Pirates" serves as an excellent introduction to pirates. The book contains several maps and brief biographies of several pirates, including Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, and others.
The narrative is easy to read and flows smoothly. If you are looking for a good introduction to pirates, then this book is the one. However, since the biographies are brief, I suggest you go to other pirate books for more detailed histories.
Recommended.
Good but not very indepth
This book isn't bad in that it gives a general overview of piracy throughout history with a large focus on the buccanneers and pirates of the Caribbean and Africa from the 16th to the 18th century.
Some of the chapters (which are only a couple of pages) just give an overview of the time and place while others do focus on individuals. The chapters that do focus on individuals are rather brief in my opinion. Some do go into detail, such as with Henry Morgan but others are given only a couple of pages.
There are plenty of maps and pictures that accompany the chapters but many of these don't really add much to the work itself. The antique maps that are presented are for the most part too small to be of any use.
I would have liked to have seen more diagrams of the ships of the time as well.
This is a good book if you just want some general information, though most of the information contained in here is somewhat common knowledge for anyone who's studied pirates before. That said, this is a good book if you just want a good overview and don't want to dig through the chapters of a more indepth book.
A fun introduction
This book is an enjoyable and easy to read introduction to the personalities and history of piracy throughout the world. It gives you a fun insight into the time periods and fates of many of the prominent personalities.
Here's fine stuff for the gallows
The History of Pirates, by Angus Knostam with introduction by David Cordingly, is a honest, straight forward, history about the pirates of the world, starting with the Greeks and Sea People, showing us the great pirates of history, and ending in the South China Sea. The Barbary Pirates, the Privateers of Elizabeth, the Buccaneers of the Spanish Main, Blackbeard, Bartholomew Roberts and even the pirates of the Far East. Nobody and no time period is left untouched.
The author shows us all cruel and ruthless many of the pirates were but also shows that many were not just pirates. One nation's pirate is another nation's hero or soldier. The legends and myths have to be pushed aside to show the facts and real people that rovered the seven seas, fighting for King, God and gold. Even has a chapter on the pirate code.
A must for any collection dealing with Pirates, general world history or naval history.
