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megankass 's review for:
Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age
by Marcus Rediker
Rediker presents an overall survey of 17th-18th century Atlantic pirates, not really focusing on any individual pirates but more on the economic and social conditions that created what was essentially a mobile warrior civilization. He compares piracy as the result too poor working conditions equivalent to modern unions. Indeed, apparently the origin of the term "to strike" comes from pirates striking sails in protest. Pirates, as depicted by Rediker, was nearly obsessed with social justice and delivering karma. Definitely a very different picture than what I would have expected.
In his determination to hammer the point home about how awful working conditions with legitimate sailing jobs was the direct catalyst for mutiny and piracy, Rediker gets very repetitive very quickly. This book is layed out like an essay looking to prove a thesis, but sometimes seems to batter the evidence into fitting his mold. His perspective was also fairly limited to sailors (naval, mercant and pirate) and political leaders; I would have loved more inclusion of how a common landlubber would have been affected by or cared about pirates. Would also have liked a bit more biography on some pirates to help carry the narrative and to help remember who each one was when mentioned from chapter to chapter.
In his determination to hammer the point home about how awful working conditions with legitimate sailing jobs was the direct catalyst for mutiny and piracy, Rediker gets very repetitive very quickly. This book is layed out like an essay looking to prove a thesis, but sometimes seems to batter the evidence into fitting his mold. His perspective was also fairly limited to sailors (naval, mercant and pirate) and political leaders; I would have loved more inclusion of how a common landlubber would have been affected by or cared about pirates. Would also have liked a bit more biography on some pirates to help carry the narrative and to help remember who each one was when mentioned from chapter to chapter.