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| The Pirate Wars | 
| Author: Peter Earle
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $4.95
You Save: $20.00 (80%)
New (7) Collectible (2) from $4.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 429446
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 0312335792
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.45
EAN: 9780312335793
ASIN: 0312335792
Publication Date: April 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW BARGAIN BOOK...may contain publishers mark. Ships with Online Delivery Tracking.
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Product Description
Investigating the fascination pirates hold over the popular imagination, Peter Earle takes the fable of ocean-going Robin Hoods sailing under the "banner of King Death" and contrasts it with the murderous reality of robbery, torture and death and the freedom of a short, violent life on the high seas. The book charts 250 years of piracy, from Cornwall to the Caribbean, from the 16th 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." Using material from British Admiralty records, this is an 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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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Excellent and exciting work February 10, 2008
This is an outstanding overview of the struggle between the pirate rovers of the high seas and the government navies charged with protecting national trade. While Earle is clear at the outset that his own sympathies are fairly firmly with the navies (and the English Navy most of all) he manages to spin enough yarns of derring-do to excite the pirate lover as well.
An added bonus was Earle's fairly extensive treatment of the oft-ignored pirates of the Barbary Coast. I'd read a great deal about the Carribbean rogues, but some of the Barbary variety made them seem like docile bunnies.
 Correct and True???? October 26, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I thought this book would be interesting but it turned out to be nothing of the sort. This books information about Capt W. Kidd is completely incorrect, to the point of being laughable. Especially with the amount of "new" information involving Kidd that has surfaced in the last several years. Once I saw that this section of the book was so misleading I wondered how much of the book is also wrong or at least one sided.
Two Hundred and Fifty Years of Piracy August 15, 2007
The Pirate Wars by Peter Earle is an over view of two hundred and fifty years of pirating and the various efforts of the world's navies to bring it to an end. Earle effectively chronicles this period in history when a fine line often separated pirates and the men who hunted them
As the various wars between the European powers waned many seamen turned to piracy and preyed upon the merchant men plying the lucrative trading routes between the new world and Europe. When new conflicts emerged, these same sailors were enlisted into growing navies producing cycles of piracy. This was a time when one nation's naval hero was another's dreaded pirate. Earle looks at piracy from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean and the waters between. He looks at the Buccaneer and the corsair, examining pirate traditions and how they governed their crews. Additionally he covers the importance of politics, commerce and international conflict in fostering epidemics of pirates, as well as the various efforts to reduce or end their reign. Unfortunately, the pirates who preyed on merchant men of one nation were often seen as merchants contributing to the economies of the coastal towns from which they sailed. Many were favored and protected by those who governed these ports. This local aid helped Pirates stay one step ahead of their pursuers, who were hindered by slower ships, unreliable information, and crews with little incentive to vigorously pursue their quarry.
Earle also examines the various methods employed to end piracy and their effectiveness. He covers tactics which ranged from pardons to outright extermination. More than once Earle makes interesting parallels between these marauders of the sea and modern day terrorist. Fear and intimidation were powerful weapons, able to bring rich prize to heel without a shot.
If you have an interest in the historical world of piracy, this is a book definitely worth reading. But, if you're looking for a pirate adventure, you may be disappointed. Various actions of the more famous pirates like Edward Teach and Captain Kidd are told but he pulls back from the more exciting aspects of the pirate wars to examine the overall historical perspective of this interesting period in maritime history. Even though I enjoyed the book I feel that it's 231 pages would have been enhanced by the addition of illustrations of pirates and ships taken from engravings and paintings.
 Law and Order: Special Pirates Unit July 7, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Peter Earle's detailed chapters on the Barbary and Maltese corsairs and the early nineteenth-century revival of Atlantic piracy depart from usual fare of popular pirate histories. This book is worth reading for this reason alone. However, his study of early eighteenth-century (so-called "Golden Age") piracy leaves something to be desired. This dynamic period in maritime history is narrowly treated as a "cops and robbers" drama played out between various pirates and the British naval forces sent to destroy them; and as Earle himself admits in the preface, his sympathies largely reside with the Royal Navy. Consequently, the book does not give a very well-rounded account of the Atlantic world in which these pirates operated. Non-British sources are given limited airtime and Earle has surprisingly little to say about the wider social forces (maritime capitalism, wage labor, American colonization, the slave trade, the expansion of working-class literacy at sea and on shore) that shaped both eighteenth-century piracy and the navies that squashed it. Add The Pirate Wars to your pirate library, but make sure to supplement it with a social history such as Marcus Rediker's Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea---a smart working-class history that fills in many of Earle's blind spots.
I love Pirates June 8, 2007
I found the book informative.. every author has the same facts at hand and some make them more interesting than others. The book goes into my collection as a good reference source.
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