There's a very enjoyable review of three new books about pirates in the New Yorker. I particularly enjoyed this description of the author of The Invisible Hook:
Peter T. Leeson, an economist who claims to have owned a pirate skull
ring as a child and to have had supply-and-demand curves tattooed on
his right biceps when he was seventeen, offers a different approach.
Rather than directly challenging pirates’ leftist credentials, Leeson
says that their apparent espousal of liberty, equality, and fraternity
derived not from idealism but from a desire for profit. “Ignoble pirate
motives generated ‘enlightened’ outcomes,” Leeson writes. Whether this
should comfort politicians on the left or on the right turns out to be
a subtle question.
An economist with supply and demand tattoos – respect!
The book they refer to, David Cordingly's Life Among the Pirates is excellent. I remember it well because I was half way through it and left it on plane so had to buy another copy. One of the key messages I picked up was that the “romantic” pirate era, much beloved in Hollywood, which delights in celebrating them despite the fact they were mass murderers, rapists and terrorists, was actually very short. Within a couple decades, the Royal Navy had established control of the Caribbean and rendered the pirates marginal.
What's puzzling to me is that I love reading about pirates too: they were the provisional wing of the emerging capitalist nation state, and most of the time they were stealing from Spain, and the Spanish had stolen the silver from the natives in the first place, so it all seemed OK. Some of the tales of navigation, amphibious assault and naval action are genuinely astonishing though.
Thanks for the pointers, they've gone into my Amazon wishlist.
For my part, I'll get the Cordingly book on your recommendation – thank you!
This is a TEST Comment
Salman Khan
Salman Khan
http://www.google.com/
I think its due to the fact that on the whole tattoos and being tattooed are a lot more acceptable now then they were 20 years ago. When I grew up it was pretty much bikers, felons, rockers, skins and punks that had tattoos. These days seems like pretty much everyone has them – from the rockers to the used cisco equipment guy. When i go into my local corporate bank (I am fully sleeved etc) one of the managers always comes running up to me and proudly tells me what new piece she has got. That would never happen 20 years ago!