chickenfeet

chickenfeet2003 reading a book on pirates? Has frivolity overwhelmed the dry and scholarly environs of Scadding Avenue? Not quite. I've been reading Marcus Rediker's Villains of the Nations - Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. It's quite good, though, being Rediker, one has to scrape the Marxist theory off with a trowel to get at the stuff about pirates. Anyone who has read his previous books or anything by Peter Linebaugh will know what to expect. American academics do not wear their theory lightly however much they emphasise their debt to Edward Thompson!

I did learn quite a lot about the quantifiable economic impact of piracy in the period in question (1713-26) and there is a good section on the notorious women pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. It only cost me $6.99 in the remainder bin which seems fair enough. If I'd paid the cover price of ₤18.99 I might have been less pleased!