Customer Reviews

Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

Angus Konstam's book on the life and times of Blackbeard the Pirate is well researched and well written. It reads smoothly and places Blackbeard into the historical context of the times in which he lived. Other reviewers have criticized Mr. Konstam for the amount of historical context he presents as he weaves his Blackbeard narrative but this approach is necessary not only for the paucity of actual historical information available on Blackbeard but also to break through the popular media stereotype of the man. For the casual reader, Mr. Knostam's book is the best I have read on the subject and he manages to walk the fine line between providing a good historical narrative and not falling into the trap of becoming immersed in historical detail. The footnoting convention Mr. Knostam uses is a little unusual in that in his desire not detract from the narrative, he makes looking up cited references a little more difficult but this complaint is more style than substance. Mr. Konstam's book is a wonderful companion to the more scholarly treatment of Blackbeard provided in Mr. Robert E. Lee's earlier work entitled "Blackbeard the Pirate, A Reappraisal of His Life and Times" and the two works together will give the reader a good understanding of just who was the historical Blackbeard and what was going on in his world to shape his actions. Recommend Mr. Knostam's book to anyone interested in this period of Colonial America's maritime history, it is an easy read and very informative.

Honestly I'm shocked that such a renowned author would write so little about the subject in the book's title. This was a book about piracy in general but the exploits of Blackbeard appear in maybe half the book with nothing particularly new to learn.

But what bothered me most was when the crew of Blackbeard was to be tried and hung for piracy. Mr. Konstam constantly referred to the four black pirates of the crew as "African-American". This is certainly premature as the USA (which is the American part of African-American) wouldn't even come into existence for another 60+ years! These black pirates were African not African-American. I HATE political correctness!
AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

First off I wanted to mention that I've tried researching as much as I can on Blackbeard (or Edward Teach/Thatch). This book was actually the last one I got into in my "travels" to the bookstores, library, and internet. Thankfully it also seems to be the best one of the bunch.

I'll say that aside from reading books like Pirates! from the author I was not familiar with his writing at all. But after opening this book and beginning to read through it I was pleased that it wasn't going to be a dry historical reference. Most books based on history are very drawn out and boring. You often times get a lot of names, dates, and the addition of useless information pushed into one another and can get confused. This book has a decent narrative that slowly introduces new characters and then covers them fairly well.

Now the biggest problem I had with this book is that it's so broad. The book is titled Blackbeard... but can often go pages without mentioning him. You end learning about Pirate history or the background of a particular ship before you get to the meat and potatoes of what Blackbeard had to do with what you're reading about. For someone wanting to learn more about the Pirate culture and history it was a treat for me. But, for the average reader who might want to know about Blackbeard specifically... this can mislead them.

The second problem we're faced with (at no fault of the author) is the lack of information/resources. There really isn't a whole lot of information on the man (Teach). You have your sources like Captain Johnson (who we don't even know the background of), news articles (who let's face it... often embellish on facts to make their stories more interesting), and government documents (which can be edited as well). So when he began writing the story I imagine that the author was worried that he didn't have enough information. Which might be why there's plenty of "extra" fluff added in.

In the end though, we're given a story that's both factual in nature (often citing multiple sources for a given statement) and fun to read. For anyone interested in learning about this man (Blackbeard) this is probably the best single resource.

I only rated this book a 4/5 because of the fact that the average reader might not find all the extra information (not pertaining to Blackbeard) useful or even needed. But for someone interested in the culture/history as I am, you will certainly enjoy it.

Really enjoyed this. Well written and engaging. I liked the historic details, too, for context; and the references to other pirates which helped me to imagine the atmosphere of the time. The author appears to aim for accuracy and even-handedness, too. Good read, altogether.

I received my order in a timely matter. I really enjoy reading about different historical figures. This book is well written and gives many insights on this particular character. Thank you.

Got here on time for class and was a lot cheaper than the fsu bookstore!! Turned around and sold it back to the school and made a profit!!

First off, to make this clear, I'm not giving this book a low score because it's a bad book. I'm giving it a low score because it wasn't necessarily what it claimed to be.

I bought this book from a Pirate Enthusiast Shop in Saint Augustine, Florida by a man dressed as a pirate who called himself "Tiger Lee". This guy knew his pirates, and his shop was equal to his enthusiasm for it. I'm somewhat of a pirate nut myself, and we spent close to an hour discussing and debating the finer points of the Golden Age of piracy.

He recommended this book to me, calling it the most complete and detailed biography on Blackbeard he ever read. I had just finished, "Pirate Hunter" the biography of Captain Kidd (awesome book!), and this seemed like the fix I needed.

Now, Tiger Lee wasn't wrong when he said it was detailed or complete...the problem really stems from the fact that the author can't keep you on a straight path. Within the first three chapters of the book I can't list how many times he'd go off on a tangent about something else and then wrap it up by saying "More about that in the next chapter". I applaud his thoroughness...but it was like the man couldn't keep a straight thought in his head. Also, if you're expecting it to be specific to Blackbeard, it's not. It's actually more of an over-all history of piracy with Blackbeard being referred back to several times. So to any true pirate fan, you'll probably end up reading a lot of stuff you already knew about.

Overall, if you're just getting into pirates and want something that's rather analytical and detailed...this is your book.