Outlaws of the Atlantic - Marcus Rediker

Published by Verso: London, UK, 2014.

It wasn't as easy finding a book featuring pirates as I thought it was going to be. I've read plenty in the past - Treasure Island is a classic I thought of revisiting, and more recently enjoyed Tress of the Emerald Sea had a good sci-fi twist to the pirate tale - but in the end I decided to read this non-fiction nautical history that I had on the classroom library shelf.

It did take a while to get the hang of what was being written about in this book - the endnotes clarified that originally each chapter was published separately, and that makes a lot of sense! - but overall Rediker seems to be focussing on the lesser told stories of nautical history, often focussing less on the prominent figures (the Columbuses and Cooks of history) and more on the crew and slaves who also featured heavily at these times. Two chapters even focus on individual accounts, and these are fascinating, especially when giving a different perspective on the politics of the day. An example: Edward Barlow, writing in 1689, after voyages to Brazil, China and the East and West Indies, stated: "for foreign nations to come and plant themselves in islands and countries by force, and build forts and raise laws, and force the people to customs against the true natures and people of the said places, without their consent, how this will stand with the law of God and the religion we profess, let the world judge." (quoted on page 43). Looking at the stereotypical nationalistic-eurocentric viewpoint of the day, it is amazing to see that more thoughtful opinions could be held, if not by those in authority over nations. 

The chapter devoted to piracy itself is good, but in being only a chapter cannot go into the sort of detail that a book like The Republic of Pirates could manage. In fact, by being more generalised, Rediker is forced to only give the theme of Republic a passing mention: "Some authorities feared that pirates might 'set up a sort of Commonwealth...But the consciousness of kind never took national shape, and piracy was soon suppressed." (page 83). I recommend checking out Republic for a more thorough look at this fascinating part of history.

That is not to say that Outlaws is bad, by any means. I still enjoyed the book and learnt a lot about individuals and incidents I had not heard of before, or only heard of in passing. The chapter on the Amistad rebellion was very interesting, as an example. I also learned the origin of the word buccaneer(!): it was from the wooden spits, called boucans, that pirates used to cook meat on!

So... interesting but not gripping.

Completed 13 April 2025.



(2025 Reading Challenge - "Pirates")

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Pōrangi Boy - Shilo Kino

Image
Published by Huia Publishers: Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, 2021 (2020). Niko Te Kainga-mataa lives in the small town of Pohe Bay, a predominantly Māori community where the New Zealand government is planning to build a prison. Niko's grandfather, Tangaroa, is opposed to the prison, saying that it is going to be built on Māori land that is being watched over by the taniwha Taukere. Unfortunately, Tangaroa is known as the "pōrangi man" (crazy man), and throughout the book we see that he has lost some of his mental faculties - even to the point of urinating on people. As his grandson, and as someone who also wants to stand up against the prison being built, Niko too is labelled as pōrangi. Through the book, Niko has to wrestle with his own beliefs regarding Taukere, as well as learning to take a stronger leadership role in the community, particularly in the area of protesting the prison. Being written by a Māori author, Shilo Kino,  The Pōrangi Boy has a very authentic M...
Read more

The Last Battle - CS Lewis

Image
Published in an omnibus edition with the full Chronicles of Narnia series: " The Magician's Nephew "; " The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe "; " The Horse and His Boy "; " Prince Caspian ";  "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" ;  "The Silver Chair" ; "The Last Battle" , by Harper Collins Publishers: Hammersmith, London, 2010. Originally published 1956. The final book in the Narnia series, The Last Battle appropriates covers the events leading up to and surrounding the end of Narnia itself. The last king of Narnia, Tirian, and his close friend, the unicorn Jewel, enlist the help of Eustace and Jill to do battle against a "false Aslan" and an army of Calormenes. The book is different from the remainder of the Narnia series (aside from The Horse and His Boy ) in that it begins in Narnia, following Narnians, with no one from 'our' world arriving until quite a way in to the book. Even when they do ...
Read more

The Good Women of China - Xinran

Image
Published by Chatto & Windus: London, England, 2002. Translated by Esther Tyldesley. When I started the Alphabet Soup challenge, I knew that some letters would have a few less options to choose from, and felt that X would probably be the hardest. As I approached this letter I did occasionally glance ahead, and would see one or two books at most on display at any one time. In the end, when I went to get a book out for X there was only one fiction book currently in the library by an X author. Skimming through it I was unimpressed, so I browsed through non-fiction for only the third time in this challenge.  The Good Women of China is a collection of biographical stories told by Xinran, who for eight years ran a radio programme in China called Words on the Night Breeze dedicated to telling the stories of Chinese women. Fifteen such stories, including Xinran's own upbringing, are presented here, including some so traumatic that she was never able to share them on air.  The f...
Read more