Page 92 - All About History - Issue 72-18

REVIEWS

The books, TV shows and films causing a stir in the history world this month

BLACK FLAGS, BLUE WATERS

An epic, scholarly new history of piracy’s golden age

Author Eric Jay Dolin Publisher Liveright Price £21 Released Out now

lack Flags, Blue Waters by Eric Jay Dolin, Dolin’s work is a new take on the well- and Robert Snead, a man who learned early on
reveals the history behind the golden troddenpathofpiratehistory,asscholarlyasit that it didn’t do to tangle with pirates. Though
ageofpiracythatsweptthewaters isentertaining.Hedoesn’tshyawayfromthe some of the pirates whose exploits are included
around America in the late 17th and Boy’s Own-ish tales of roguish pirates that have here have become rather romanticised figures
B early18thcenturies.Itwasatimewhen made these men and women so fascinating over the centuries, Dolin doesn’t flinch from
legends were made, money talked and justice for centuries, but nor does he lose sight of the providing the sometimes gruesome facts behind
p
y
wasn’t always done. economic and political imperatives that created their exploits but this isn’t a sensationalist book,
such a perfect breeding anditisfirmlyanchoredinsolidresearch.
ground for piracy,
relatively short though “Dolin’s work is a new
their golden age was.
In Black Flags, Blue take on the well-trodden
Waters Dolin brings path of pirate history,
colonial America vividly
as scholarly as it is
to life and examines
how the colonists and entertaining”
officials clashed and
collaborated, and how
piracy played its part Eric Jay Dolin is clearly comfortable with
in building the new the material at his disposal and has previously
economy. He looks written histories of whaling and the opium
back into the archives trade, amongst others, and he has an eye for
to discover how this the sort of detail that brings colonial North
mutual backscratching America springing from the page. Keeping
turned into animosity suchasprawling,complexworldwithso
and examines how the many larger-than-life characters in check is no
increasing economic mean feat, and it is one that Dolin manages
clout of America with considerable aplomb. He teases fact
meant that pirates, from folklore and cuts through the hyperbole
once tolerated and of legend to breathe new life into even the
sometimes even most famous names on both sides of the law,
celebrated, found presenting both the pirates and their foes as
themselves hunted very real and complex people, rather than
across the oceans. cartoonish sea dogs and beleaguered lawmen.
Of course no history This book will appeal not only to scholars of
of piracy would be the golden ages of piracy and exploration, but to
complete without a anyone who enjoys a dramatic, well-told story.
few famous names Black Flags, Blue Waters is an important work in
and Dolin provides itsfield,richinscholarlysourcesandproviding
them in spades. Rest some welcome historical context for piracy’s
assuredthatnames heyday and inevitable decline.
such as Blackbeard, It is immensely readable, and at
Stede Bonnet, and least as thrilling and action-
CaptainKiddarewell- packed as any pirate legend!
represented, as are Gripping and dramatic,
Readable,
theforcesoflawand this book takes readers Authoritative,
order, including figures back to the dawn of the Thrilling
CC
such as Ben Franklin New World

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