Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Roger (Paperback)

~ Ulrike Klausman (Author), Marion Meinzerin (Author), Gabriel Kuhn (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

There have always been women among pirates and sea robbers. Metaphors of mysterious and destructive femininity may have perennially been assigned to the sea and its dangers, but the real women who sailed on ships steered them, sank with them, commanded them, even commandeered them have been ignored by a history written by and for patriarchal men.

Ample evidence of women pirates and even feminine piracy nonetheless abounds: beginning with ancient legends of Amazon sailors in several cultural traditions, and continuing uninterrupted through a wealth of confirmed historical figures, down to the present.

Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Roger is an account of piracy through three millennia, in histories of women and men sailing on four seas: the Chinese Straits, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean. Writing with passion and humour, but without romanticizing, or ignoring the unsavoury side of some of their heroines, the authors turn history on its head. Nor do they forget the practical details, even including genuine recipes for shark and other delights.

The volume is introduced by Gabriel Kuhn's essay on anarchism and piracy, "Under the Death's Head." Considering the history of Caribbean piracy and drawing on Stirner and Foucault among others, Kuhn describes a breaking out of structured obedience, an escape from perpetual supervision, a plunge into unpredictability, danger, "everything that makes strong, free action."

"The stories are lively and exciting. You'll definately be able to taste the sensation of piracy, as the authors have included a number of actual recipes prepared on the high seas. This book is a hearty read which I would recommend to the saltiest of seadogs as well as your average landlubber."-Feminist Bookstore News

"Carefully researched and vividly told."-In These Times

"For those who like thier history marinated in oral tradition and spiced with socialist-feminist analysis the language is blunt, sly, poetic, and innocent of academic jargon. Also includes regional recipes; readers will want to try the Piquant Shark Schnitzel from the Caribbean."-Rain Taxi

"A fascinating book...the offbeat subj

About the Author

Ulrike Klaismann is a freelance journalist.

Marian Meinzerin has been researching the motives of pirates for many years.

Gabriel Kuhn is a freelance writer. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 245 pages
• Publisher: Black Rose Books (April 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551640589
• ISBN-13: 978-1551640587
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,377,120 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the best work on pirates, December 27, 2001

By	Michael Schoene "vacciner" (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This book is by far not the best book that I have read on pirates. It is written more for a woman who is feeling bad about her sexuality. The book is an effort to list every woman, fictional and otherwise, that has ever had a role in maritime history. The book starts out by talking about ancient gods (yes, female gods) that related to the sea. This discussion is better saved for a book on mythology because it was a good summary of female gods but it did not pertain to pirates. The book moves on and talks about female pirates through the ages all over the world. While this is somewhat informative I believe that the significance of these woman pirates in history is way overstated. Female pirates were very few and far between, and many really shouldn't be considered pirates. The best part of the book was the discussion of the most netorious women pirates, Mary Read and Anne Bonny. These two chapters were interesting and informative but they were also burried in the book. I would suggest a book that includes but is not limited to woman pirates because the fact is that there were very few woman pirates in history. The last quarter of the book focused on the politics of the Jolly Roger. This section helped to save the book but it often repeated and contradicted the first part of the book. I noticed a few inaccurate statements in this section, but on the whole this section was well done. This book is not a total waste of time, but it gets off topic and overstates things in my opinion. Women have played a huge part in world history, just not as pirates.