Pirate Nonfiction

Hoist the mizzenmast and batten down those bloody hatches: Pirates! Scoundrels Who Shook the World tells the hilarious-but-true adventures of history’s most amazing pirates.

Pirates have long lived in the realm of romance and fantasy, symbolizing risk, lawlessness, and radical visions of freedom. But at the root of this mythology is a rich history of pirate societies—vibrant, imaginative experiments in self-governance and alternative social formations at the edges of European empire. David Graeber explores how the proto-democratic, even libertarian practices of the Zana-Malata—an ethnic group made up of mixed descendants of pirates who settled on Madagascar at the beginning of the eighteenth century—came to shape the Enlightenment project.

A ship was more to a pirate than just a place to make a living. Ships often provided more freedom than pirates could get in most places. Come aboard to see how pirates lived, worked, and fought on their ships.

For more than 200 years, the wreck of the Whydah (and the riches that went down with it) eluded treasure seekers, until the ship was finally found in 1984 by marine archaeologists. The artifacts brought up from the ocean floor are priceless, both in value and in the picture they reveal of life in that much-mythologized era, changing much of what we know about pirates.

You just tried out for the school play. Who wants the lead part more than anyone? YOU! Imagine stealing piles of jewels and gold coins. Living without rules. Wearing a metal hook and having a parrot as a pet. But be careful what you wish for. That might not be the way it was for a cabin boy on a pirate ship…

The twelve entries in The Golden Age of Piracy discuss why pirates thrived in the seas of the New World, how pirates operated their plundering ventures, how governments battled piracy, and when and why piracy declined. Separating Hollywood myth from historical fact, these essays bring the real pirates of the Caribbean to life with a level of rigor and insight rarely applied to the subject.

Avast! Are ye' ready to sail the high seas with some of the world's most feared pirates? These accounts will do more than shiver your timbers. Come aboard to witness the ruthless methods of history's most petrifying pirates.

You've just stumbled upon the magic way to learn your times tables - with The Pirate, the Parrot and the Genie! Narrated by the brilliant Stephen Fry, and featuring Chris Emmett and Mark Angus, this vocal performance will have your child effortlessly learning their times tables and laughing their heads off at the same time.

Piracy and the Making of the Spanish Pacific World demonstrates that piracy is key to explaining the surprising longevity of Spain's Asian empire, which survived the Age of Revolutions and endured almost to the end of the nineteenth century. It offers important new insight into piracy's impact on the trajectory of globalization and European imperial expansion in maritime Asia.

Following the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) a decade-long wave of sea-robbery plagued the Atlantic rim—often glamorized as the "Golden Age of Piracy". Boston-based laborer, Edward Low, left his mark on pirate history as the most vicious and sadistic raider of them all.

What was life really like on a pirate ship? Captain Rumbeard, the famous pirate (in his mind anyway) will take you through the truth and the lies about being a pirate and was life was like on a pirate ship. In this audiobook, we will aim to find out the real truth about pirates and their lives on their ships on the high seas.