Złoty wiek piratów

by Benerson Little, Maciej Studencki (Translator)

Kim byli piraci – romantycznymi morskimi włóczęgami czy też straszliwymi zbrodniarzami bez zasad? Jak często pirat sięgał po kordelas lub pistolet? Czy chętnie ruszał do ataku na równie dobrze uzbrojone okręty jak jego? W jakich warunkach wolał ostrzeliwać przeciwnika z daleka, a kiedy decydował się na abordaż? Odpowiedzi na wszystkie te pytania z mistrzowską dociekliwością udziela Benerson Little, a kiedy odpowiedź na wątpliwości wydaje się niejednoznaczna, przytacza fakty, prowadzące zwykle do logicznej konkluzji.

Poznaj epokę, w której bogaci, szanowani obywatele inwestowali w łupieżcze rejsy, a morscy rozbójnicy rabowali kupieckie statki. Odwiedź świat pirackich portów, tętniących życiem i grzesznymi rozrywkami, gdzie złoczyńcy w ciągu jednej nocy wydawali fortuny i zaraz potem znów ruszali na morze. Dowiedz się, kto i dlaczego zasługuje na miano najsłynniejszego pirata – a komu ten tytuł nadano bezpodstawnie.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Pirates, Research, Historical, World History, Amazon

420 pages, Hardcover

Published October 12, 2017

About the author

Benerson Little is an author focusing on naval history, in particular, piracy and privateering in the 17th and 18th centuries. He is a former Navy SEAL, and more recently acted as historical consultant for the Black Sails television series.

Reviews

[Cindy Vallar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pirate with an eye patch, and perhaps a wooden leg, wearing tall boots and an earring, with a parrot on his shoulder, and armed with cutlass and pistols. He, or she, drinks rum, might sport a tattoo, and curses up a storm when he’s not saying, “Arr!” This is the quintessential swashbuckling buccaneer of yore . . . or is it?

Most people recognize at least some of this description isn’t true. It’s Hollywood’s version or how writers portray pirates in their novels. Within the pages of this fascinating book, Benerson Little explores the myths associated with piracy and then delves into primary accounts to distinguish between fact and myth. He also explores how these myths may have originated, as well as why real pirates didn’t act as they do on screen and in print.

The book is divided into two parts. Six chapters address myths dealing with pirate violence in “For Some Body Must Be Beaten.” The remaining six chapters focus on pirate society in “The Custom of the Coast.” This study concerns the pirates who lived and preyed between 1655 and 1725. The topics covered are pirate flags and symbols on them; “false optics” and two famous pirates – Blackbeard and Bartholomew Roberts – who employed these techniques; pirate ships and those upon which they prey; techniques and torture used to gain information from prisoners; sea fights and attacks; duels and weapons; pirates and slaves; women pirates and pirates of color; pirates as revolutionaries and rebels; pirate democracy and utopias; and treasure.

Each chapter opens with a summary narrative that explores an episode from history related to the topic being discussed. The endnotes include the sources used in these condensations. Three examples of such events are Blackbeard’s blockade of Charlestown, the buccaneers crossing the Isthmus of Darien, and the capture of Calico Jack Rackham and his crew. Next Little discusses the myths pertaining to each episode before examining how they became myths and what facts led to this false picture of Golden Age pirates.

Unfamiliar terms are explained in context, and Little clearly identifies whether his conclusions are drawn from known facts or are educated hypotheses based on what period documentation shows. The source material listed in the extensive bibliography reveals not only the depth of his research, but also the numerous archival material and primary documents he consulted. The book includes a center section of illustrations, endnotes, and an index.

While a few other volumes discuss pirate myths, The Golden Age of Piracy goes far beyond these. Little sifts through the popular mythology and purposeful ideological speculation to introduce readers to the real pirates without turning a blind eye to their cruelty and crimes. That he does so in language that any reader will understand makes this a valuable resource and worthwhile addition to any pirate aficionado’s or historian’s library

[Andrew Galbreath · Rating 3 out of 5]

Benerson Little's information and research about pirates is absolutely impeccable; however his writing is a different story. "The Golden Age of Piracy" has all the facts to be an interesting read. As the title suggests, this book concerns the "Golden Age" of piracy, generally considered to be from 1650 to 1720. The information and knowledge Little has is invaluable for anyone who wants to learn about pirates. He dissects every myth you can think of: peg legs, buried treasure, pirate flags and symbols, rum drinking, pirate language, sea fights, pirate democracy, women pirates and pirates of color, pirates and slavery, and the image of the pirate as a rebel or revolutionary. He also tackles myths about legendary pirate captains like Blackbeard, Captain Morgan, Henry Every, Bartholomew Roberts, William Kidd, and many more.

It's too bad that Little's book is a very uneven tome and at times a real slog. When he slips into historical fiction, the prose is highly dramatized present tense and comes out of nowhere with no transition, and several times he revealed at the end it was a fictionalized account. This seemed very unnecessary to me and distracted from the message of the book concerning the romanticization of pirates.

There are other problems as well. He continually uses the terms "pirates," "buccaneers," "filibusters," and "privateers" without defining exactly what these terms mean or the differences between them. This oversight is inexcusable in a meticulously researched book of over 300 pages. He also uses naval terms like "tumblehome," "forecastle," "ballast," "broadside," and "poop deck" without ever telling us what these mean or where they are on the ship. It would have been very easy to insert a simple diagram page for the layperson (I found plenty online, but I shouldn't have to). I feel the book would have been far better had it been half the length it is, and/or focused on the facts without all the historical fiction sections.

That being said, I greatly enjoyed the chapters about pirate democracy, pirate torture, walking the plank, women pirates, and pirate's involvement in the slave trade. The treatise on weapons (muskets, cutlasses) was also informative. Ultimately, I would recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn about the real history of piracy, but it would have been a solid five stars if it had had a solid editor.

[Don Gerstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Curiosity got the better of me with this book. I wanted to know what kind of pirate myths the author planned to debunk. After all, I’ve been around long enough to have a halfway decent knowledge about pirates.

Or so I thought. Benerson Little is a recognized expert on this subject, having published four books, written magazine articles, and appeared on television commenting on piracy. “The Golden Age of Piracy” is extremely well-researched, and contains more information than I expected.

There are the stories one might expect, telling us all about Blackbeard or Captains Kidd or Morgan. There are many other captains and pirates he mentions, but more fascinating are the myths he exposes, “facts” I had grown up with and had embraced as true. I won’t spoil a good read by telling them to you, but some of the subjects include:

Buried treasure
Walking the plank
Pieces of eight, and what they were worth when making purchases
How pirates fought, and the weapons they used
Those epic sea battles between two ships
And much more!

Mr. Little entertains as well as explains, so this is not a dry read. When an answer is not clear, readers are provided with facts as the author attempts to lead us to a logical conclusion (such as the debate over why a pirate flag is called the “Jolly Roger,” as well as some of those other pirate sayings such as “Shiver me timbers!”).

Anyone with an interest in history or the golden age of piracy (1655 – 1725) should take the opportunity to read this book. Wonderfully written, generously footnoted, and complete with an extensive bibliography, this book contains a wealth of knowledge and is also a lot of fun to read. Five stars.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

As other reviewers have mentioned, while the book appears to be well-researched, the writing leaves a lot to be desired. It is very disjointed and rambling at times. The format often used seems to be (1)here's something about pirates everyone thinks is true, (2) it's not true, (3) here are the only two known examples of when it was true though - one of which happened outside the "Golden Age of Piracy" - so it doesn't count, (4) here's why it became a myth, (5) repeat several things you've already been told in prior paragraphs.

The various topics are potentially interesting, but it's so easy to get distracted by the writing. It's a book about pirates and I fell asleep at least three times while reading it. That's a problem.

[Irwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again Benerson Little has produced a well-researched and in-depth look at an aspect of piracy. Other books of his have examined the tactics pirates used and the life of a pirate. This edition examines the myths that color our perceptions of how pirates looked or acted and what we may think about their motivations and beliefs.

With each myth examined, the probable creation of the myth is shown as well as how it may have been perpetuated over the years. Several historical examples of actual pirates are presented to demonstrate the “truths” of these myths.

As I began reading, my expectation was to get some form of “true” or “false” answer with everything presented. Instead, it seemed like there was some truth to everything. Or, maybe the topic was true of the early buccaneers rather than the pirates of the 1700s and vice-versa. This was especially so with the chapter on pirates flying a skull and crossbones flag. An all red or all black flag was similarly shown to serve the same purpose. So many examples in this chapter had ships with flags, reported to have flags, or not having flags that the book’s subtitle should have been called “The Truths Behind Pirate Myths.”

Little provides a very thorough and entertaining dissection of the image we have of pirates. Why each detail of that image is false is also explained. The paragraph about pirates not wearing bandanas or scarves on their heads was a surprise to me. Certainly this was true of sailors serving the guns during the Napoleonic War!

The examination of the types of vessels actually used by pirates may have some aspiring pirate writers making hurried changes to their manuscripts and leaving the rest of us just disappointed. Who says the truth doesn’t hurt?!

Within this same chapter, Little states “the musket was the principal weapon of the pirate.”(64) This may be another case of this being truer for the buccaneers who fought mostly on land, rather than the shipboard pirates of the eighteenth century.

Another subject he looks at is how pirates treated their victims. L’Ollonois is one of the most brutal pirates, stories of his brutality are carefully backed up with the true sources for each action. Surprisingly, the story of his death after torture has no source. (78) Is this a wishful myth of its own?

Two of the most famous pirates, Blackbeard and Black Bart Roberts, have chapters of their own dealing with all of the myths about each of them. Roberts “is considered by many to be . . . ‘the greatest pirate of them all’.” (88) Some readers may find it hard to tell that Little is being sarcastic here, even though he provides valid reasons why Roberts certainly was not the greatest pirate.

In the summation to this chapter – prefaced by saying “the facts, however, say otherwise” (100) – Little refutes that Roberts had any noble motivations; states Blackbeard engaged in piracy even after being pardoned; Kidd really committed pirate acts; and Henry Every and his crew captured one rich ship and raped all the women before going back to England where he died in poverty. Ironically, none of these statements are supported here by any endnote sources, although readers who wish to hunt for such sources will find some of them elsewhere in the book.

In the chapter dealing with combat at sea, Little writes “In the early eighteenth century, pirates used the various black flags with depictions of skull and crossed bones or full skeletons to great effect.” (108) So why is there a whole earlier chapter mostly denying this? Perhaps this book should have included a table or timeline showing when myths are myths and when they are true. Perhaps it would have helped if he quantified how often or what percentage of the time each myth held true as opposed to his saying no, no, yes, yes as is sometimes the case.

Another individual dealt with at some length is Laurens de Graff. Twice he is said to have served on Dutch ships with no explanation of how or when. He is also said to have been a Spanish gunner assigned to the treasure ships, but specific details on how or when he earned this experience and reputation is not mentioned. (117) Although he may have been “an extraordinarily talented fighting seaman,” regardless of whether he sailed for the Dutch or the Spanish, scant evidence is provided to show that his ship was ever attacked or boarded. Prior to when he became a pirate, de Graff may have just been well-trained, rather than experienced.

A chapter dealing mostly with why sailors became pirates includes the issue of what they did with their ill-gotten gains. Little mentions “most pirates squandered their shares of plunder on rum, prostitutes, and related extravagant, debauched celebration.”(143) I thought this statement could have also been a myth and deserved more coverage than it was given.

One thing that I had hoped to read about was whether the saying “Dead men tell no tales” originated with the pirates or was also just a myth. Without any survivors this practice might have been hard to document unless a pirate made a heartfelt confession in an attempt to save his soul. Could it have been examined by looking at all the ships that vanished without a trace each year on the Spanish Main? Would it show an increase in the yearly totals when the pirates were most active? Unfortunately, it wasn’t discussed and so I am left to wonder.

Some facts that were presented had only one source and were not readily accepted by me. This was especially so when I read “Pirates of the early eighteenth century often flew into a panic at the sight of a man-of-war or other vessel capable of making a stout fight.”(178) If they generally had swift vessels that could also sail closer to the direction of the wind, escaping a warship should have been relatively easy and no cause for panic.

One of the most bothersome things in this book is the use of a story from Greek Mythology as an example of a possible fact. If a real myth can be a fact, how can the same person use facts to disprove myths? It is questions such as this that make me doubt some things said in this book. I encourage you to read this new publication for plenty of enjoyment and the knowledge to be gained, and to use your own judgment about what is presented herein.


Book review Copyrighted ©2017 by Irwin Bryan
Pirates & Privateers www.cindyvallar.com/pirates.html

[Myke Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am always happy to learn the truth of a subject, no matter how surrounded by Hollywood lore it may be. I've been a big lover of pirates for most of my life, and know that most of what we see is nowhere near as glamorous as it is usually made out to be. This book excelled at shedding light on the truth that many people choose to ignore. As much as I love a good Hollywood yarn, I'm always happy to learn the truth of the matter, and know that it's not always as simple as we think it may be.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an impulse buy at a used bookshop, and purchased mainly because of the subject matter. I am always interested in anything having to do with maritime lore including pirates.
I appreciated the extensive research, heavy footnoting and detailed bibliography that went into this book, and I enjoyed it overall, but it was a bit of a bummer having most of my favorite and cherished myths about what pirates were like taken apart item by item.
Some myths, like forcing people to walk the plank or the existence of a "Pirate Utopia" in Madagascar, I already knew were bunk, but others, like if and when the classic, dreaded, black, skull and crossbones flag was developed and commonly used, was a bigger surprise (it was practically unknown to the 17th century "golden-age pirates" and was inconsistently adapted by 18th century pirates)
The biggest disappointment was the way pirates treated people of color. Pirates were unusually democratic (they elected their captains) and egalitarian (in the context of the times) and I always liked to believe had a generally rebellious-to-authority attitude, which is part of their appeal to me, but I also thought that this attitude translated into a more open-minded attitude towards members of different races and nations; they did, but with this crucial qualification: only with actual members of their crew, and for practical, not philosophical reasons. They were still products of their time, and deeply racist. They also tended to treat colored members of their crew as "second class citizens" saving the worst and most dangerous jobs for them. Most disturbing was their treatment of any slave cargo they encountered on their raids. They very rarely freed them, and more often ransomed them to their "owners" or resold them on shore for cash. They were treated like any other plunder. In some notorious cases they destroyed the human cargo when they lacked the manpower to control them, or were under threat of attack or capture, in one case letting a ship full of slaves burn because they didn't have time to unshackle them before their pursuers caught up with them. Not exactly the romantic ideal, is it?
Not only does the author demolish many myths about pirates in general, he also dismantles stories about individual infamous pirate captains, many, whose exploits turn out to be largely fictional.
I also liked that the author was able to track down the likely origins of many of these fictions. Pirates were and still are interesting, and to be fair, there were extraordinary individual pirates who pretty much live up to the mythology, but they were by far the exception, rather than the rule.
The final takeaway, is that pirates, on the whole, were motivated, not by honor or revenge or patriotism, but overwhelmingly by good old fashioned greed, and were a lot more rape-ey, and murder-ey then we might otherwise be comfortable with.
It is sobering to think that if we were to encounter real pirates, they would have beaten and robbed you and very possibly tortured, and murdered you. Like a lot of mythic figures, they are always interesting, but only palatable when the essential ugliness of what they did is seen from a comfortable distance of 300 years or more.

[Tony Fraley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Like most, I love the myths and legends of pirates. Who doesn’t love pirates!? Learning some real history, however, does put a damper on those legends. I think we all want to believe that pirates were mostly like Jack Sparrow, but as the history shows here in this book, most of them were not as dashing and good-hearted.

[Allen Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title alone sounded interesting and that interest grew more when I realized a former Navy Seal wrote it (I have noticed they never do anything halfway). Well, I was not disappointed. Extremely well researched. Very enjoyable read. The whole time I was reading it I was thinking 'he needs to write something about modern day pirates as well and for the same reasons'. Well, he has and that is next on my list of 'must reads'- PIRATE HUNTING. Special thanks to Skyhorse Publishing and Goodreads for putting this book on the Goodreads Givaway. Was glad to win it and had fun reading it.

[Ryan Impink · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Entertaining and informative. My only critique would be that the author tries too hard to be a debunker. There are parts where he starts out saying the following is an absolute myth. Then gives examples where it was true. Then says well, it is somewhat myth, somewhat true. With that said, very worth a read!

[Tom Lange · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read. The media has cultivated an image as gospel on what pirates were like. It should not really be a shock that they get a lot wrong when you consider the time that has passed. This book could be summed up in one phrase "Carribian Pirates = Fake News".

The author tends to ramble. At times he is all over the place. It seems sometimes he confusionally shifts from telling a fact just to dismantle it and tell another version of fact that opposes the original fact.

That being said, it is still enjoyable and packed with uncommon knowledge and theory on the subject. Most notably on how notorious pirate captains may not have been fearsome as most claim and also an interesting chapter on woman in piracy.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent info but could have been shorter

Parts were hard to put down while others I had to force myself to muddle through. I learned some things and will forever think differently of the golden age of pirates but I think I could have gleaned as much from an abridged edition. Still, it was worth reading.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly interesting, well-researched book, though unfortunately not terribly well-written. The author wanders often, jumping back and forth from story to fact, often making it hard to follow. Still an enjoyable read, however

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a well-written and well-researched book. As its title states, it is the "truth" about pirates. The author starts out talking about the various myths surrounding pirates (well, "European" pirates) and then, halfway through the book, switches over to the historical facts about pirates. I say "European pirates" because it focuses primarily upon the Caribbean and both sides of South and Central America; it does also talk about some piracy in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean by Europeans I was surprised to learn there was an actual "pirate base/kingdom" in Madagascar!.

The book moves at a good pace; there is quite a bit of information packed between its covers. The first two hundred fifty-six pages are about the Golden Age of piracy; the remaining one hundred pages consist of source materials, end notes, and an index. There were times it did seem to 'drag' a bit, but it is not a work of fiction and all history books tend to drag in points. I liked how the author presented his topics; he had me going, at one point, until the end of his 'anecdote' when he revealed the entire story was false, a myth. I chuckled over that one.

He put forth some ideas on how the various pirate myths came about; some of the myths have been around for nearly two hundred years whereas some of the myths are more recent (the result of pirate novels from the early 1900s and Hollywood). It was interesting to learn that Howard Pyle seems to have been one of the 'biggest purveyor' of pirate myths as many of the stories in his book about pirates are mythical in nature and not based on historical fact.

I am not sure if this counts as a spoiler or not, but the author debunks the myth that pirates were all about "freeing slaves" and never had slaves themselves. It seems pirates were well-known to capture slave ships and then either hold the slaves for ransom or sell the slaves themselves for a profit. That being said, there were some former slaves who did join pirate crews, and some free black men also joined pirate crews (some willingly and some by force). He also talks about how there were, indeed, some female pirates, but not to the degree that Hollywood or popular fiction likes to portray. He also talked about how very few pirates ever buried their treasure (unless it was for safe-keeping), how pirate captains never had the amount of wealth imagined by modern day people (they received between two thousand and maybe six thousand shares of the plunder at the end of any given voyage; it never amassed to the amounts portrayed by authors or Hollywood). It was interesting to see (learn) how many pirate myths there truly are.

I was also surprised to learn how 'common' piracy was along the African Coast and even into the Indian Ocean; that there were pirates who regularly sailed from India and terrorized the Indian Ocean. I never really thought about Arabian pirates, but they existed as well. So, yes, it was fascinating to learn how wide-spread piracy truly was, and that there were actually "pirate empires" in existence a few thousand years ago. It was also interesting to learn how mix pirate crews could become in terms of having people of mixed blood aboard as well as "pure-blood" Europeans. Apparently the Spaniard crews had more mixed blood (European blood mixed with Native American blood or Negro blood; some pure-blooded Native Americans and Negros) than Dutch, English, or French pirate crews, but even these other nationalities would allow people of mixed blood (or even pure blood Native American or Negro) to join their crews, too.

One of the 'best lines' of the book was: Of course pirates buried their treasure! Yet seldom is asked the question: Why would they bury it when they could spend it? (252)

Overall it was an interesting book to read, and I am glad I took the time to read it.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I found this book interesting and I did learn a lot. Not just about pirates and their history, but also about where our cultural imagery and references concerning pirates come from. I genuinely appreciated the backtracking of cultural influence.

That being said the drinking game for this book would be for every time the word 'Hollywood' is said. Considering that there are only a handful of pirate movies, half of which are a part of the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and the other half I've never heard of, mentioning 'Hollywood' two or three times a chapter seemed a bit excessive.

Whenever 'Hollywood' was written the tone is always of disdain for spreading inaccurate myths, but as the book points out that's a tradition as far as pirate stories are concerned. (And I should hope that no one has watched a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, especially World's End, and thought it was in any way historically accurate.)

It's a shame that this book must have already been in the publishing process when the TV show Black Sails aired. The show seemed to have gotten it more right than 'Hollywood' usually does and where it leans into the fictional narrative it's because well...half of it's characters are fictional. This book actually helped me to better understand what the show pulled from history and what it pulled from fiction.

[Joelendil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don’t read this book if you are the kind of person who gets angry when someone takes the wind out of a great story with cold, hard facts. This book mostly seeks to describe what the average pirate was like during the golden age of piracy (~1655-1725), and in the process it systematically destroys the image of bad-but-misunderstood-and-noble-at-heart swashbuckling heroes.

The author makes heavy use of primary sources to describe what various typical pirate activities (seizing a ship, attacking a town, fighting a duel, practicing democracy, dealing with slaves, etc.) actually looked like. He also describes rarer, more dramatic events that served as the basis of how most Literary/Hollywood pirates behave.

Sometimes he uses typical history book explanations and sometimes he reconstructs and retells events in more dramatic fashion (with quite a bit of “might have” “could have” “must have” speculation). Occasionally he is repetitive (a danger in any topically arranged history) and tends to take the least dramatic interpretation of almost every event, but overall this is an excellent, informative book that that seeks to draw its views out of the primary sources rather than reading a pet theory into them.

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes myths about pirates and piracy and debunks them one by one. It limits itself with piracy by Europeans in 1650-1725 primarily in the Caribbean. The book is quite interesting, rich in details, with large bibliography and massive footnotes. Sometimes it goes too greatly into the details like discussing which fencing techniques and more specifically feints and hits could have been used by dueling pirates and the like. It cites a lot of fiction and film and show where they err.
The [non-exhaustive] list of myths:
- Pirates usually used black flags with skull and bones
- They used galleons as their ships and hunted galleons
- They often fought and boarded ships
- Their primary weapon is a cutlass
- They primarily hunted in the open ocean
- They were rebels
- They fought slavers
- There was a pirate kingdom
- There were female pirate captains
- There were non-white pirate captains
- There were pirate treasures
Most of these things had a grain of truth but were exaggerated out of proportion.
An interesting read for all the lovers of pirate fiction.

[Alex Roma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an informative, well-written book in which the author seemed maybe a little bitter that real life pirates were not like romanticized movie pirates and burdened with the obligation to disillusion the rest of the readers. Mind you, I think it's probably important that we don't forget the amount of raping that real life pirates likely did and it's important to remember that real life pirates were not egalitarian freedom fighters but in fact traded slaves themselves. It's a non-fiction book, and it's not his job to give the readers the romanticized definition.

But I don't know, I've read non-fiction books that talked about what actual Golden Age pirates were like without quite being this much of a downer. Books that didn't read as though it was the author's sacred duty to give every reader a harsh reality check but handled the material in a balanced way. There wasn't much information in here that I didn't already know, so I didn't get much from this. I did think the way he discussed pirate battles from a logistical standpoint was pretty cool, though.

[Paul Lunger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Benerson Little's "The Golden Age of Piracy: The Truth Behind Pirate Myths" takes we the reader on a journey through history in the year 1655-1725 as he examines the fact vs fiction side of pirates & their lore/legend to all of us. Across 12 chapters & over 200 pages, the truth behind just who pirates were & a lot of their symbols comes is explained and a reality to this reader became very apparent - our view of this period of time is romanticized quite a bit simply by Hollywood which along with literature got a lot of things wrong. The book itself is actually a fascinating read & very interesting as well as these myths are uncovered & exposed. If the book lacks anything it's an afterward which probably would help (even if it were only very brief) to wrap things up. Overall though this is a book that's interesting for anyone with an interest in this period.

[Kristi · Rating 1 out of 5]

While it is clear the author is an expert on the topic, I found this book needlessly haughty. “Blackbeard was not even a ‘knight of the black flag’ as historian Lee has also stated... But here Lee may unintentionally have a point...”.

The writing is steeped in academic-styled phrasing such as the quote above. However, it lacks the succinctness one would expect with such a writing style. Each chapter meanders through various iterations of the topic but simultaneously introduces new tangents that inevitably dilute the message. Chapter 1 contains 27 pages regarding pirate flags, which arguably could’ve been edited to 15 pages.

Perhaps my expectation that this book would be a light history of piracy set me up for disappointment. I chose not to read beyond the second chapter because the writing style did not suit and I found the snarky-ness off putting.

[Al Lock · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book bothered me, mostly because although it is titled "The Truth Behind Pirate Myths", it should really be entitled "The Author's Opinion of Pirate Myths", and often states positions without any real justification of those positions. It is surprisingly well foot-noted, but those footnotes often don't do anything more to explain the author's positions.

The biggest example is scattered through the book, where the author either cites A General History of Pyrates or dismisses it depending on the subject (this is not a defense of that book, I think it is almost entirely fiction and should be treated as such) for no other reason that is evident than his opinion.

Too much "I'm the expert" and not enough actually presenting the evidence/records.

This isn't a history, it's a "Hire me as your technical advisor, I'm an expert book".

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

It looks like I'm an outlier on this one. The subject is very interesting, and it's not a hard book to read. But the writing style is just not for me. It's too, I don't know, conversational? As well as repetitive and discursive. One chapter on the types of ships/boats pirates used begins with an anecdote about a band of pirates attacking New Panama. Just as they reach Panama, they capture a larger ship in port. And the history of the boats just moves on from there. Did they sack New Panama or not? Little never says.

Going to continue reading, because it's not bad, but it's just not great, and barely passes for good.

[Tania Yvette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely worth the read.

The compilation of essays have a flair of personal voice and opinion but do keep every accusation and myth grounded. Don't believe everything painted by media. These are the starts of misrepresentations of what we know and love.

The only issue I had with the writing was the repetitiveness. Many facts and minor details were repeated numerous times, making the reading a tiny bit dreadful. The stories were colorful and filled with painted pictures for the brain.

[Alyssa Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was just meh about this one. The author should've chosen a different chapter to lead with. I almost quit reading the book altogether because it was so boring! I felt like it had so much potential, but read like a text book instead of an interesting study of pirate myths.

There were some good chapters in the middle that I quite enjoyed, but the bookend chapters were so underwhelming.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-researched, lots of interesting information, and a cover I would happily put on my wall and look at all day (which, though it doesn't affect my rating, is always a plus). If only the writing had been more engaging, less repetitive and disjointed, rambling on and on until my eyes glazed over sometimes...

[Rob · Rating 1 out of 5]

As much as I love pirates, I just could not get into this book...it may have been the style of writing. There were some parts that were interesting to me but I felt mostly the book just rambled along.

[Tracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This took me a long time to read. I was initially intrigued by the book. It was a bit meandering. I think if I had a real passion for the topic, I probably would have been more enthralled with it. But mere curiosity prompts me to wish for the same information in fewer words.

[Charlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a detailed and explicit look at the Golden Age of Piracy. it deals with myth-busting and exposing the truth about 16th and 17th century lawlessness on the high seas. An excellent read for the swashbuckling enthusiast or the ten year old boy.

[Ray Savarda · Rating 2 out of 5]

had some interesting info, but very fragmented, poorly written. I was reading, and realized, wait, didn't I just read this same segment earlier? yes, I had, just phrased differently, a dozen pages earlier. I made it 55 % thru, but quit, it just wasn't worth the effort.

[Boris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This proved to be a tedious read, from dwelling at greater length than necessary on the origin of the "Jolly Roger" to the convoluted prose of the author.

The author's overall thesis is that the pirates of myth, cinema and literature didn't exist.