Customer Reviews

Pirates and Piracy (Dover Maritime)

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Not your run of the mill pirate history, the author covers a broad range from the Vikings through the South Sea pirates. There is a certain flavor of pulp fiction to the prose and I'm afraid at least a little bit of fictionalization in the content. The narrative is entertaining, though, and most readers will enjoy this glimpse into pirate history (circa 1914).

I am a firm believer that a balanced view of history can only be achieved by reading all viewpoints and understanding where the authors' viewpoint originates. Chatterton is about as British as they come and the slant on the content is fairly clear. That said, if you can get past the Pax Britannia imperialist attitude of the author, you will find some glimpses of pirate history that are seldom seen.

Much of the book focuses on piracy in the Mediterranean and the Barbary Corsairs. The author covers the various efforts to suppress them, the successes and failures of all Christian nations up to their eventual elimination by the British navy.

Many of the well known names, like the Barbarossa brothers, Morgan, Teach, Kidd and Avery are favored with chapters. The author, also, provides accounts of the depredations of a number of pirates from the 19th century, including the infamous De Soto.

My bottom line is that this is a reasonably entertaining book that includes a good deal of information I have not seen covered in many of the other books that I have read. The author's viewpoint is not unbiased and there is a certain element of fiction in the prose, so the content needs to be viewed as having value but being somewhat less than a verity.
P-)