Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate [Hardcover]

Angus Konstam (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 2006

"A thorough, exciting examination of 18th-century pirate life,with wonderful details."
--Publishers Weekly

"Interesting and exciting . . . a thoroughly enjoyable chronicle of an interesting life and interesting era."
--Booklist

The definitive biography of history'smost fearsome and famous pirate

Of all the colorful cutthroats who scoured the seas in search of plunder during the Golden Age of Piracy in the early eighteenth century, none was more ferocious or notorious than Blackbeard. As unforgettable as his savage career was, much of Blackbeard's life has been shrouded in mystery--until now.

Drawing on vivid descriptions of Blackbeard's attacks from his rare surviving victims, pirate expert Angus Konstam traces Blackbeard's career from its beginnings to his final defeat in a tremendous sea battle near his base at Ocracoke Island. Presenting dramatic accounts of the pirate's very effective tactics and his reputation for cruelty, Konstam offers a fascinating examination of the life and business of piracy and the lure of this brutal and bloody trade.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Konstam, the Scottish author of more than 50 maritime history books here explores the dreaded Blackbeard, "the archetypal pirate of the age...and one of the most fearsome figures around." Konstam makes a thorough, exciting examination of 18th century pirate life, with wonderful details such as the pirates' code, which can read as a precursor to America's own Bill of Rights: "Every man has a Vote in Affairs of Monument, has equal Title to the fresh Provisions, or strong Liquors, at any Time seized & use them at pleasure." However, the author's portrait of the seadog fails for two reasons: first, very little is known about Blackbeard, and Konstam hasn't been able to uncover much that's new; "we must assume" becomes a frequent, frustrating qualifier when the book focuses on its subject. Secondly, Konstram is fond of cliches: a ruler's power base collapses "like a house of cards" while another is able to "walk the political tightrope;" and the feared pirate himself "would stop at nothing to get what he wanted." The padding necessary to produce a lengthy version of Blackbeard's story produces a work that has little of the dash and derring-do readers will expect from the biography of a pirate, and ends up painting Blackbeard less as a terror of the high seas than a bully with a big boat. Illustrations.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The so-called golden age of pirates (roughly, the first two decades of the eighteenth century) still conjures up images of tough, hardy, colorful rogues who chose to live outside the bounds of conventional society. Perhaps the best known of the pirates was Edward Teach, better known to contemporaries and to history as Blackbeard. Konstam is a former naval officer and marine archaeologist who has written extensively on piracy. He has provided an interesting and exciting biography of an enigmatic figure who defies easy categorization. Konstam does not romanticize Blackbeard, or the life of pirates in general. Blackbeard was apparently a ruthless, brutal man. He was by no means the most successful pirate, and his string of spectacular "achievements" lasted less than two years. Thankfully, Komstam spares us blather about "pirate honor," but he convincingly maintains that Blackbeard was a compelling figure with great seamanship skills and an audacious temperament, which inspired men to follow him. This is a thoroughly enjoyable chronicle of an interesting life and interesting era. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (June 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047175885X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471758853
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #736,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

With over 50 history books in print, Angus is a widely recognised and much-published historian. While he specialises in military and naval history he has also written numerous more general history books, designed to make the subject more accessible to a wider audience. Uniquely he has been able to draw on his expertise as a senior museum curator who has worked on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as on his academic training as a historian and as a maritime archaeologist.

His latest book is a full-length biography: Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate, which is published by Wiley & Sons. of New York (June 2006)

Angus is also just finished writing a history of the Allied landings at Salerno in September 1943 for the British publisher Pen & Sword, and he is currently working on a new project, with the working title of Supership: The Quest for the Renaissance Battleship.

Angus lives in Edinburgh, in Scotland.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book against limited material, September 13, 2006

By 

T. Schmitt (Issaquah, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate (Hardcover)

This is a grand tale of Blackbeard and piracy in the Caribbean in the early 1700's. Working against limited and sometimes contradictory historical records, the author creates a great story and divines the truth of what actually happened in that period of time. Most of all, this is a well written book that encourages you to flip to the next page. The narration is crisp and paints a vivid picture of the times. The research is well done and draws the complete scene, understanding the main people, their motivating factors, and how they all collated to form history

Why I take off one star: While this is a very good book, actually only about half the book is about Blackbeard himself. The book really doesn't start talking about Blackbeard as the main topic until about page one hundred (of 300 pages) There are really no swashbuckling tales of grand pirate fights, of trading canon blasts and boarding ships in epic swordfights. Most pirates were just actually gangs of thugs who used boats as their vehicles and canons as their means of intimidation. They scared and cowed their victims into submission, and were sensible enough to run when the force of authority came into view. The book is more about the business, conditions, and times of piracy, then of the individual pirates themselves and any great seafaring stories. Therefore, the real story is a lot less than the often romanticized tales of piracy. There's actually less interesting material to craft a story than one would expect.

The most compelling moment in the book is near the end, when Blackbeard meets the might of her Majesties Royal Navy. Standing up to the fight, this is a Hollywood scene when Blackbeard engages his opponents in a ship vs. ship battle. The Navy plants a trap to egg Blackbeard into boarding one of her ships, and Blackbeard takes the bait. A blood thirsty battle then ensues as the weapons come out and the men going at it in a classic hand-to-hand fight. At the end, the deck is stained red from all of the blood, and Blackbeard's head is hanging from the mask!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Blackbeard - a decent read with interesting details, August 17, 2008

By 

Scoob A. Diver (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate (Paperback)

This was an interesting book but I found the detail on the sloops and sea adventures dragging at times. The discussion about the conflict between the Virginia Governor and the North Carolina Governor over handling Blackbeard and his men was an interesting backdrop for Blackbeard's ultimate demise.

What was most interesting was the privateering influence on the motivation to become a pirate. When countries at war would hire privateers to conduct state-sponsored piracy at sea, was it any wonder that these men who knew little but privateering would turn to piracy once the wars ended and their letters of marque rescinded?

There were interesting details about the sea and navigating the waters in the early 1700's, but at times the book dragged on in details that made it difficult to keep an interest in the subject. It is obvious that the author did a great deal of research and used his expertise in sailing and sea faring to add to the material in the story.

Overall, a 3-star rating is my review of an interesting book that does point out how short-lived the pirate times were in the early 18th century.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Learning about Black Beard, June 11, 2009

By 

Ronald K. Downie (San Angelo, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate (Paperback)

I found the book quite interesting since some of my ancestors immigrated to the Pamlico River area of North Carolina in the 1700's where Black Beard spent his final days. I was a bit disappointed that the book seemed to be more of a general history of the pirate situation in the 1700's and not an indepth biography of Black Beard. With that said, I was pleased with the book and would recommend it to any perspective reader.