Republic of Dullness
I hate to be the one that drops the review average, but for a book about pirates it was surprisingly dull. I realize that the very nature of pirates means there is not much archival material to work with other than official documents that are very likely biased, but I came away from this book not much more enlightened than when I started.
The title is never really addressed, in my opinion. Mr. Woodard simply states the pirates wanted a base and made one on Nassau. So how, exactly, was it a republic by and for pirates? We never find out. At no point is there any mention of how such a society functioned. Was it rule by the strongest, most daring, the one with the best charisma? Don't know, it is never stated. Instead, we get a pretty complete rundown of ships taken.
And then the pirates themselves. While finding out about the real Blackbeard is interesting (he is not as bloodthirsty as the books I read as a kid made out), there is still way too much about the ships he captured and not enough about him. Charles Vane, another pirate, is mentioned in the introduction as a particularly violent one, but when, after much slogging, we come to the brief section about him it is just more captured ships.
It seems to me that Woodard had a great prospectus and sold the book based on it, and then found there was not much to write about. UNDER THE BLACK FLAG was much better. It talks more about the daily lives of the pirates and how the ship hierarchy was organized.
I wanted this book to tell me about how a society of pirates functioned, not an insurance adjustors claim list.
Provides a fascinating history of real pirate worlds
Captains such as Blackbeard and Charles Vane created the 'Flying Gang' and established the Pirate Republic in the Bahamas, where blacks were equal citizens, servants became free, and leaders were voted in - or out. Most think of 'pirates' and how they cut off trade routes and sacked ships, but actually they were heroes in the eyes of many - and REPUBLIC OF PIRATES: BEING THE TRUE AND SURPRISING STORY OF THE CARIBBEAN PIRATES AND THE MAN WHO BROUGHT THEM DOWN provides a fascinating history of real pirate worlds - perfect for any collection interested in pirates.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
The Golden Age of Piracy: crime and adventure in its context
The Golden Age of Piracy, roughly a 30 year period at the beginning of the 18th century, has taken on such a romantic notion in the modern mind, that when you actually discover the true events of the period, that the true story becomes much larger than the caricature that has been painted by Disney or other children's' stories. What Woodard, a native Maine journalist, attempts to do in this book is explain who the pirates actually were, what their motivation was, and why their heyday ended so rapidly. What makes this book so readable, is that not only does Woodard recount the hazards of early 18th century sailing so well, but he places it in its economic, social and political context.
What made the pirates of the age so different from previous pirates, for piracy has been around as long as men have taken to the sea, was that these pirates were considered outlaws by every nation, and quite a large percentage of the few thousand who made up the Golden Age, were political dissenters, and hopeful insurgents against the new House of Hanover of Britain, and supporters of the deposed House of Stuart.
Woodard inserts several things into his narrative that make this book worthwhile. His description of the extremely harsh social and economic conditions that sailors of the day had to serve under goes a long way to describe why a sailor with an otherwise spotless record would choose to leave legitimate merchant or military service for the high risk life of a Caribbean pirate. The author also makes the at time arcane world of 18th century sailing understandable and real. The reader, by the end of the book, should know the difference and significance between sloops, various rates of line ships, and frigates for example.
The book focuses on the personalities of the era especially well. The rise pirate "republic" of the failed British colony of the Bahamas is shown to be personality driven by pirates like Vane and Hornigold. The public persona of Blackbeard, as well as the bumbling of Stede Bonnet illustrates how pirates used or misused their personal gifts to advance their high risk/ high reward profession.
Put into context, the reader, besides learning about a fascination time period that was as exciting and really as short lived as the outlaw period of the American west or the gangster rule of Chicago, can see how a pattern of the rule of law and social convention breaks down in all sorts of time periods and circumstances. The British government solution, led by the Bahamian Governor, Woodes Rogers, was to aggressively assert authority over the center of the insurgence and then to alternate between warnings of mercy and systematic hunting of the lawbreakers by getting them to use their natural suspicion to turn on each other.
This is a fascinating book for the general reader. There are sufficient maps of the 18th century Caribbean and the North American coast, and the writing not only puts the events into context, but tells the story well, by describing the motivations and personalities of the Golden Age of Piracy so that they make sense within their time period.
The republic of Pirates
Colin Woodard has done a great job in documenting all we know about the Caribbean Pirates. I like the level of detail. I enjoyed the investigative detail of all of his research on court trials and history. No doldrums in the reading this book at all; each page and chapter carefully well written and laid out. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to buy this as a gift, who would like to read about the Caribbean pirates and who loves to read about history. There was good introduction about the famous John Avery Madagascar pirate.
I really enjoyed how this information was woven together and I hope Collin writes another just on the Madagascar pirates.
Better than Expected
This book was very descriptive and detailed. All the pirates, their crews, and ships were all named, and a few of the ships were pinned down to the port they were made at and the type of wood they were made from. Somehow the author was able to compile all of this data and turn it into a real story.
I couldn't put it down.
(22 reviews)
