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The definitive history of the golden age of piracy by one of the world's leading naval historians
By one of our leading naval historians, The Pirate Wars investigates the fascination pirates hold over the popular imagination, taking the fable of ocean-going Robin Hoods sailing under the "banner of King Death" and contrasting it with the murderous reality of robbery, torture and death, and the freedom of a short, violent life on the high seas.
Peter Earle expertly charts 250 years of piracy, from Cornwall to the Caribbean, from the sixteenth century to the hanging of the last pirate captain in Boston in 1835. Along the way, we meet characters like Captain Thomas Cocklyn, chosen as commander of his ship "on account of his brutality and ignorance," and Edward Teach, the notorious Blackbeard, who felt of his crew "that if he did not now and then kill one of them they would forget who he was."
Told using previously unused material from British Admiralty records, The Pirate Wars is a fascinating account of the Golden Age of pirates, and of the men of the legitimate navies of the world charged with the task of finally bringing these cutthroats to justice.
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About Peter Earle Peter Earle is Emeritus Reader in economic History at the University of London. He has written widely on many subjects including naval history. For Methuen he produced the well-received Sailors - English Merchant Seamen 1650-1775.
Other titles by Peter Earle
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