Pirates: The Golden Age of Piracy: A History From Beginning to End

This small book about the history of piracy is another great addition to the Hourly History series. I find it interesting and exciting to read these little books and discover how lives and eras of famous and in this case, infamous people can be so well presented in so brief a work. These books are great springboards for further research, and even teach us about people who, up till now, were unfamiliar to us. As always, I look forward to the next installment.

As usual, Hourly History provided an excellent history, this time about piracy. I enjoyed reading about the history of piracy and learning about 'the Pirate Queen' was fascinating. I wish the book had spent a little more time on the 'gentleman pirate,' especially the theory that he turned to piracy to escape a nagging wife! It's a bit discouraging to learn that pirates sti;; abound and are likely to be around forever (especially as we live on a boat!)

Let us start this review by stating that this is a summarizing history of piracy and the Golden Age of Piracy. This is not a fictional tale that has leading protagonists. This is a short book with many informational nuggets about piracy and I found the content to be a wonderful introduction about a person or persons that I may want to read about in more detail later. In the beginning there was some repetition of wording between the prologue and first chapter. I did some fact checking on the material and with how broad of a scope there is on this subject there should have been citations so that I could verify the facts. The intention of this book is to be a concise slice of history that can be read in one hour. I feel that the author was successful in his goal.

Very informative. I would have liked a little more comprehensive detail for each of the pirates. The summarization you provided was fun and entertaining, but as an avid Pirate enthusiast and historian, I would love to have more detail on each. Thank you for writing this book and I look forward to more in the future.

To many, stories about pirates evoke mixed feelings. On the one hand, there are the exciting tales of adventures in the open seas and the great wealth that went with it, on the other, the sad loss of innocent human lives and the disruption of genuine trade and economic activity so essential to commercial growth and development. This brief book gives the reader a full picture of this exciting story and the controversy it generated over the years. In the Middle Ages, this economic activity was referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy, and getting involved in it was not only extremely rewarding but also fashionable. Some governments and even rich people ventured into it for enrichment. Business flourished and big pirate names like Willian Kidd, Grace O’Malley, Target Rais and the fearful Blackbeard became the talk of society. Economically, piracy was a source of quick income and everyone wanted a piece of the action. Surprisingly, even Queen Elizabeth became fully involved not only in taking a share of the booty but also by providing ships for the pirates. People looking for a quick fortune piracy was the right answer. Preying on innocent ships in the oceans was simple: it took only 4-5 nimble fighters with light arms to jump onto the cargo ship, arrest the crew and take over the ship. Asking for a ransom was routine and the running price was (in today’s money) around $600,000. Business flourished and spread to the Americas (especially the Caribbean region) and as far east as the Indian seas. Media glorified piracy and pirates were referred to as heroes. In later years, Hollywood saw a good opportunity and started romanticizing pirate movies using famous actors (Errol Flynn, Tyrone Powers, Douglas Fairbanks) and making a fortune while delighting the movie crowds. How are we to look back at this exciting period in Europe? There is no doubt it was a dynamic economic period with sudden wealth spreading to all classes including the nobility and even the royals. But was it all ethical and proper business? Or were people driven by greed and lawlessness and thus blinded toward the old moral principles set by religions and social principles? For, who cared about the huge material and human losses incurred by those pirates who captured ships, their cargo and the crews? It seems that authorities turned a blind eye and put ethics aside while counting the booty. And to add insult to injury they cushioned events with kind and romantic words: criminal pirates became ’heroes’ and were represented in movies by famous actors; preying on innocent ships and crews was an ‘adventure’; even the whole series of vicious crimes became The Glorious Age of Piracy!! It took years, if not centuries, for governments to realize the damage that was being done. This free-for-all robbery was starting to hurt the interests of business within Europe itself and especially for the major players - Spain, England and France. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, lawlessness was gradually stopped, security was tightened and decency found its way back. And those gangsters who rebelled and refused to obey the new laws were chased, captured one by one and hanged. Sadly for them, the Glorious Age of Piracy had come to an end. FR Qubein Sept. 2019

I like reading about pirates. I really like reading about pirates in historical romances, but I am fully aware that they are not the same. In "The Princess Bride," I assumed that the Dread Pirate Roberts referred to Bartholomew Roberts, or Black Bart, one of the bloodiest pirates in recorded history. I read a wonderful book called "The Sweet Trade" by Elizabeth Garrett, which was about Anne Bonny and Mary Read. It contained a wealth of information about them and how they hooked up with Calico Jack Rackham. This brief history of pirates is quite interesting if you want to know more about real pirates. Most of them came to a bad end just as they knew they would. 4

Some information very specific, other information very vague. More on female pirates would make the text more interesting. Example. : How were they able to control so many men when women were not considered an equal. Overall, a good read.

This is more of a school paper than a book, and suffers from the purpose of aiming for scope and limiting depth. The introduction and the first chapter are nearly identical, the introduction should have been shorter and established that the "book" was a brief overview of the different time periods of piracy, the "World's Second Profession". Each chapter is focused on a time period or person related to piracy, whereas those topics on their own have literally dozens or even hundreds of books written about them. The book really shouldn't try to consolidate the career of Blackbeard into less than 3 pages. It shouldn't write off the United States' response to the Barbary Pirates as "The Barbary Pirates were not defeated by the Americans, but the French and the British navies proved up to the task, vanquishing the Barbary pirates and their dominance." There were a few editing misses: The Aegean and Mediterranean bodies of water are "Seas" not "Oceans". on the same page: "Two of the pirate of that time". Also, "The Ancient World saw one of the most famous men of all time fall victim to pirate attack", this need "a pirate attack". Later it is written, "Julius Caesar captive when he was sailing in the Aegean Sea", rather than "on the Aegean Sea". It is not a poorly written piece, just the wrong focus in my opinion. The author stuck an interesting thesis for piracy being considered the "World's Second Profession" and should have run that thread through each chapter, time period. Basically the theme that "Idle hands makes the Devil's work" and just exchange "hands" with "sea legs". Citations are needed, not knowing the sources or not being able to refer to them to fact check some of the claims, puts the information being presented at a disadvantage. Richard J. Sellati M.A. LIberal Arts; B.A. U.S. History S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook, NY.

Short but fine book

very good insight , on the life and times as how the sailors of the day coped with the hardships , of ocean storms, and the brutal battles they fought

First class reading a collection of interesting stories and a concise but brief history from the 16 hundreds to the present day from an author that knows the subject

Needs to be less about history and more about pirates and how they lived etc ......not as interesting as I had wanted .

This eBook is a free download in kindle. Though the tagline is Hourly history, this book provides ample information about the beginning of piracy during the Roman era to the Somali pirates. Most of us know that Caesar was taken custody by the pirates early in his career. We can get some knowledge about the famous pirates such as Tragut Rais, Grace O' Malley, William Kidd and Blackbeard. The life of Grace O' Malley, who is the first woman pirate and the notorious Edward Teach who best known to this world as Blackbeard are given. I came to know the meaning of Greek word pirate as "I attempt". The author has wrote what kindled the growth of piracy. "The Golden Age of Piracy arose from a time when the powers of Europe were locked in a fierce battle for navel and mercantile supremacy, and as the fortunes of the nations ebbed and flowed so did piracy". William Maurice was the first man in England to be convicted of piracy in 1241. Not every pirates faced hangman's noose, there are some exception like Henry Every who was one of the pirate round was more fortunate and bribed for his protection, lived and died later in London. A separate chapter is included for Piracy and Privateering. I thoroughly enjoyed the book.