Raiders and Rebels: A History of the Golden Age of Piracy - Softcover

Sherry, Frank

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061572845 ISBN 13: 9780061572845

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2008

Synopsis

I he most authoritative history of piracy, Frank Sherry's rich and colorful account reveals the rise and fall of the real "raiders and rebels" who terrorized the seas. From 1692 to 1725 pirates sailed the oceans of the world, plundering ships laden with the riches of India, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. Often portrayed as larger-than-life characters, these outlaw figures and their bloodthirsty exploits have long been immortalized in fiction and film. But beneath the legends is the true story of these brigands—often common men and women escaping the social and economic restrictions of 18th-century Europe and America. Their activities threatened the beginnings of world trade and jeopardized the security of empires. And together, the author argues, they fashioned a surprisingly democratic society powerful enough to defy the world.

About this title

About the Author:

Frank Sherry is a former journalist whose non-fiction work includes Pacific Passions: The European Struggle for Power in the Great Ocean in the Age of Exploration. He lives in Missouri.

From Publishers Weekly:

Piracy by European and American ships flourished in the years 16921725, and this absorbing book concentrates on that brief period, an era of such storied figures as Henry Every, Captain William Kidd, Edward Teach (Blackbeard) and Bartholomew Roberts (Black Bart). Pirate life released sailors from the brutal oppression of regular merchant ships and national navies, and it was a time when the American colonies fostered piracy by buying stolen cargoes to circumvent Britain's Navigation Act. Sherry, whose avocation is sailing, traces the shifting political alliances that led to privateering, which in turn led to piracy, and show why the center of piratical activity shifted from Madagascar to the Bahamas. His book offers swashing and buckling to please romantics and factual information to satisfy historians. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0061572845
• ISBN 13: 9780061572845
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400