British pirates and society, 1680-1730

摘要

This book examines how, around the turn of the eighteenth century, piracy 'acted as a kind of prism that illuminated aspects of contemporary life and society' (2), because, as Margarette Lincoln observes in her introduction, 'The history of piracy is as much about rhetoric as it is about actual events' (3). The book covers an impressive range, with chapters on pirate executions and the legal status of piracy, attitudes among merchants and in polite society, and representations of Madagascar as a 'pirate nest' and of piratical masculinity. At times, this leaves the strands of discussion quite separated, most noticeably in the long chapter on polite society. The two chapters on Madagascar and masculinity are, by contrast, much more tightly focused, and on the whole the book shows how piratical figures were used for multifarious purposes.