Bandits at Sea: A Pirates Reader (Paperback)

by C.R. Pennell (Author) "Not long ago, one of my children came home from her primary school with a library book about pirates..." (more)
Key Phrases: General History, New York, Anne Bonny (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
With titles like "Black Men Under the Black Flag" and "The Practice of Homosexuality Among the Pirates of China," the 16 scholarly essays of Bandits at Sea: A Pirates Reader deliberately set out to explode myths and stereotypes. C.R. Pennell (Morocco Since 1930), senior lecturer at Australia's university of Melbourne, has gathered foremost experts on these most romanticized of murderous predators, some of whom are shown to have had sophisticated anti-statist and class conscious ideas about what they were doing.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
"Bandits at Sea is a thought-provoking collection, and would be an excellent addition to any serious pirate student's library." -- No Quarter Given, Sept. 2001:

"The 16 scholarly essays . . . explode myths and stereotypes. Pennell . . . has gathered foremost experts on these most romanticized of murderous predators." -- PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814766781
• ISBN-13: 978-0814766781
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #587,269 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful collection of research!, August 7, 2003

By	Rachel E. Pollock (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a collection of scholarly essays on the subject of historical piracy the world over. It's divided into two sections, "Situating Piracy" and "Pirates in Action."

Essays in the first section are more general/historical, discussing piracy in general as a career, its effects on local economies and politics, its role in warfare and trade. Personally I didn't much care for this section, largely because I'm more of a scholar of the story of the individual and i already have a pretty good working grasp of how piracy related to these other areas of societal structure. I imagine though that if you are relatively new to piratical research this section would be very handy in getting a grasp on this sort of background and "worldview" perspective.

The second section focuses more on specific pirates/crews/ships/cultures, and spans a wide range of topics, from Cheng I Sao's Chinese pirate fleet, to minorities in piracy (gays, blacks, women, etc), to the little-known pirate culture of the Adriatic Uskoks. This section I found to be completely engrossing and wonderfully rich with research and detail, on subjects one rarely sees explored in depth (though perhaps moreso of late as piracy scholarship becomes wider-known and more popular as a subject of academic research).

There's a section of illustration plates in the center of the book, comprised of various historical/period woodcuts, engravings, maps, portraits, diagrams, and other media, including a facinating diagram of the "genealogy" of pirate crews in the golden age of piracy--apparently all pirate crews at the time could be traced through the training of the captains, who sprang off from whose crews to man their own ships, which all originated with two "paterfamilias" pirate captains, Hornigold and Low.

I recommend this book highly to anyone interested in piratical research!

4.0 out of 5 stars An important collection of articles on piracy, March 2, 2009

By	Anthony L. Pritchard (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Pirates At Sea is an excellent set of 15 articles edited by C. R. Pennell. It is a book suitable for those with a more scholarly interest in the subject of piracy at sea. The title is a little misleading in the sense that it could attract readers looking for narratives arout piracy. For me, however, it provided both comment and anaysis of questions I am particularly concerned about. It is a thoroughly stimulating set of readings.