From Kirkus Reviews:
paper 0-7656-0257-1 Lane (History/Coll. of William & Mary) offers an overview of the history behind the romances of piracy on the ``Spanish Main.'' Lanes thesis regarding piracy in American waters (his focus here) is that by and large piracy in the Caribbean (and, significantly, in the Pacific as well) had its roots in the response of the rest of Europe to Spanish and Portuguese imperial designs on the New World. The first Caribbean pirates were, in fact, French Huguenots, English ``privateers'' (the latter ostensibly acting on behalf of Queen Elizabeth), and Dutch sea-rovers, staunch Protestants all, who were particularly ill-disposed toward the Catholicism of the Iberian thrones. The best known of thesethe Englishmen John Hawkins and Francis Drakehave earned inflated reputations as scourges of the Spaniards, but the Dutch may have inflicted even more damage on Spanish interests in the New World, as Lane points out in detail. Yet our highly colored picture of the pirates and their crews derived more from the final and briefest cycle of piracy in the New World; in the aftermath of the War of the Spanish Succession, just prior to the beginning of the 18th century, a new breed of buccaneer emerged, anarchic, owing allegiance to no flag but his (and, in isolated cases, her) own, and robbing from Spanish, English, French, or anyone else's shipping without discrimination. The most valuable contribution of this book is to put these most famous marauders into a larger historical context and to point out how brief their reign of seagoing terror really was. How disappointing, then, to discover that our fabled swashbucklers were little more than waterborne bandits who practiced a particularly ruthless form of political expediency. Lane recounts his tale in an amiable if somewhat dry voice, and the resulting book is more interesting than stirring. A useful corrective to the mythology of the pirate, but one wishes it were a little more hearty. (illustrations, maps, not seen) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
From Library Journal:
Pirates followed Columbus to the New World. At first, the French, English, and Dutch governments dispatched pirates and privateers to plunder Spanish ships and settlements. Soon pirates became "independent agents" and plundered on their own, with Spanish shipping from the New World to Europe making easy pickings. Lane (history, William and Mary Coll.) has written widely on the histories of piracy and witchcraft and has carefully studied the pirates' effect on the Spanish carrying trade. These were not the pirates of Treasure Island but murdering, pitiless buccaneers. Lane tells the stories without the myths, discussing such well-known pirates as Francis Drake, Henry Morgan, Piet Heyn, and Ann Bonn plus several lesser-known brigands, and he includes helpful discussions of shipbuilding, food, navigation, and more. This is a well-written and important scholarly examination of an often romanticized subject and the first of its kind in English. Recommended for all maritime history collections.?Stanley Itkin, Hillside P.L., New Hyde Park, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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