The Pirate World: A History of the Most Notorious Sea Robbers

by Angus Konstam

Often romanticized in print and on the silver screen, real-life pirates were a brutal menace that plagued the high seas. In this book, Angus Konstam separates myth from reality, tracing the history of piracy through the centuries, from the pirates who plagued the Ancient Egyptians to the Viking raids and on to the era of privateers. He discusses the so-called "Golden Age of Piracy" and colorful characters such as Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, before examining the West's initial encounters with Eastern pirates off the Chinese coast and the phenomenon of the modern pirate. Highly illustrated with color images and specially commissioned maps throughout, this is a unique exploration of the pirate world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Pirates, Audiobook, Research

336 pages, Hardcover

First published February 19, 2019

About the author

Angus Konstam is a Scottish writer of popular history. Born in Aberdeen, Scotland and raised on the Orkney Islands, he has written more than a hundred books on maritime history, naval history, historical atlases, with a special focus on the history of piracy.

Reviews

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid overview over all things piratical, from ancient times until the present day. I'm slightly puzzled by so many reviewers complaining about it being too dry, I certainly didn't think so... but then, perhaps I'm just too fascinated by the topic to be remotely bored by anything relating to it.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but definitely dry. At times it felt like an information dump, and I think such an intriguing history could have been presented in a more dynamic way.

[Cindy Vallar · Rating 5 out of 5]

If not for Captain Charles Johnson and his 1724 bestseller, The General History of Pyrates, would we find pirates as fascinating as we do? Konstam certainly believes this is true, yet he also points out that “pirate” and the many synonyms we attribute to the scoundrels Johnson wrote about had different meanings in that time period. And many of the piratical elements we associate with these pirates may not apply to pirates of earlier or later centuries. Konstam’s main objective in his latest offering is “to strip away the myths and inventions from these historical figures to reveal the brutal but utterly fascinating world of piracy as it really was.” (7)

Piracy throughout history encompasses a lot of information, but the author succeeds in paring it down and presenting it in an entertaining and informative manner. He provides readers with a good grasp of sea marauding from its earliest days through the present, and also explores their portrayal in fiction. The eleven chapters are presented in chronological format, beginning with the ancient world. From there we meet medieval pirates, Renaissance sea dogs, Barbary corsairs, buccaneers, golden age pirates and those of the Pirate Round, pirates of the 19th century, Chinese pirates, and modern-day pirates. To enhance our understanding and reading pleasure, Konstam includes a plethora of color artwork, quotes from contemporary documents, notes, a select bibliography, and an index. Color maps indicate where pirates sailed and are accompanied by keys that explain what they did when, though not for all pirates mentioned in the text. Information deserving special focus appears in highlighted boxes and features topics such as Spanish coinage, pirate ships and guns, corsair galleys, Jolly Rogers, and pirate codes.

Among the many marauders readers meet within this volume are Cilicians, Vikings, Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins, Aruj “Barbarossa” and his brother Khair-Ed-Din, Murat Rais and Murat the Younger, Sir Henry Morgan, Laurens de Graaf, Benjamin Hornigold, Blackbeard, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, Edward Low, Bartholomew Roberts, Thomas Tew, Henry Every, Christopher Condent, Jean Lafitte, Koxinga, Cheng I Sao, Shap-’ng-Tsai, and pirates of Somalia and Nigeria. A few men who fought against piracy – for example Woodes Rogers and James Brook – are also mentioned. Long John Silver, Captain Blood, and those of the Disney franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean are among the fictional pirates that are included.

Konstam provides a good overview of real pirates, and his conclusion about those of the Caribbean is quite interesting. He presents the material in a way that makes it easy for readers to picture these marauders more clearly, and to understand how they operated and what drove them to piracy. The Pirate World, indeed, separates myth from reality and commendably demonstrates that while fascinating, the men and women who chose this path in life could also be quite brutal.

[Evan Buchholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall interesting, but felt lacking, especially compared to his book about Blackbeard. This covered a much larger time period of pirates from ancient times to modern day, so maybe that was too broad. The "golden age" still received the largest chunk, and a lot of that was covered in the Blackbeard book. Many of the other pirates from that time were brought up in the other book, too, so didn't learn much new content. And for learning about pirates in general, likely different periods and cultures operated differently than the golden age, but that was better described in the Blackbeard book. I guess this could be like Pirate History 101, where you cover the whole span but only skim the surface, and for anything else you need to take higher level classes that focus on specific regions and time periods. I felt like so little was covered about the ancient pirates, I would have loved a more in depth look. So I guess I'll have to find one specific for that. As well as the Asian pirates. There were a couple very interesting glimpses, but not enough to really satisfy.

[Paul Conder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summarises pirate history, from ancient classical to modern, while trying to seperate myth from history.

All the favourite pirate characters are here but laid bare. The author highlights the fact that most pirates were unsuccessful and short lived.

The book features excellent illustrations and maps.

[Ryan Jolicoeur · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was serviceable, and provided plenty of details about the history of piracy. However, trying to be all things to all people by being a sweeping narrative crowded out any character development, true motivations for why people turned to piracy, and interesting tales, etc.

I wanted to like this book, but felt like it was trying to prepare for a test it’s too much meh.

[Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a dry read, but if you want the facts on the history of piracy throughout the world (though mainly focused on the Spanish main) then this is the book for you. Contains the biographies of many well known and lesser known pirates).

[Scott D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly run of the mill stuff. A couple of good sections on piracy in the Pacific and Med, but nothing new otherwise from what I've read.

[Todd Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Pirate World skims lightly through the history of pirates. The book is written in a 'names and dates' style that made every middle-school kid hate history for the rest of their lives.

[Kylie Flint · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dear A Pirate World,

I read you quickly. I loved the pictures. Full review to come.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to the topic

[Rik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh the subject is hard to make dull but he tries his hardest. The entire history of piracy reduced to names, dates and summary of events. It's ok but there are far better pirate books out there.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to help research my pirate book

[Stephanie H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a very entertaining book, but a fantastic reference guide. Its more like an encyclopedia of pirates rather than a true historical narrative.