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Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates By David Cordingly ( Random House Trade Paperbacks )
Release Date: 2006-05-09
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Product Description
For this rousing, revisionist history, the former head of exhibitions at England's National Maritime Museum has combed original documents and records to produce a most authoritative and definitive account of piracy's "Golden Age." As he explodes many accepted myths (i.e. "walking the plank" is pure fiction), Cordingly replaces them with a truth that is more complex and often bloodier. 16 pp. of photos. Maps.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Amazon.com Review
Though literature, films, and folklore have romanticized pirates as gallant seaman who hunted for treasure in exotic locales, David Cordingly, a former curator at the National Maritime Museum in England, reveals the facts behind the legends of such outlaws as Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, and Calico Jack. Even stories about buried treasure are fictitious, he says, yet still the myth remains. Though pirate captains were often sadistic villains and crews endured barbarous tortures, were constantly threatened with the possibility of death by hanging, drowning in a storm, or surviving a shipwreck on a hostile coast, pirates are still idealized. Cordingly examines why the myth of the romance of piratehood endures and why so few lived out their days in luxury on the riches they had plundered.
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 Shiver Me Timbers
For centuries, people have been drawn to stories of adventure on the high seas and peg-legged pirates in search of buried treasure. In his comprehensive pirate book (focused mainly on 18th century piracy in the Americas and the Caribbean), Cordingly covers everything from women pirates to pirate ships and weapons. Not for the faint of heart, this text exposes some of the hard truths behind piracy: consequences for captives, punishmens for arrested pirates, the hardships of life at sea.
This book's revelations may surprise you; Cordingly frequently analyzes the books, movies, and plays that helped shape our romantic ideas of piracy. These portions are probably the most interesting sections of the book because at some point in every chapter the reader is nearly drown in a tsunami of facts and dates, making it periodically read more like a text book. While some may be rivited by endless discussion of ship types and repetitive trial transcripts, I appreciated the research, but found it to become rather repetitive.
Still, I learned a lot while reading this book and would recommend it to the avid pirate fan. However, if you are looking for an exciting tale of piracy and are not overly hung up on getting every detail historically accurate, you may be better off picking up a copy of "Treasure Island" or "Robinson Crusoe" instead - you will find that sometimes the romance is even more entertaining than the reality.
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Separating the fact of piracy from all the fiction, and romance ( scrybble17 )
Pirates from the heyday of piracy, from the 16th to the early 18th century, were driven to it by many forces. Some were poor saps taken prisoner by pirates and forced to join. Some fled the brutality of the English navy or its merchant fleet. Some had been free woodcutters or herdsman in the Caribbean or Central America, only to be driven away by the Spanish or British.
And of course, some were just mean, sadistic bastards driven by a lust for treasure and plunder.
Drawing from many documentary sources, including memoirs, trial transcript, histories from the period, and fictions with the ring of truth, Cordingly draws together a workmanlike picture of the pirates we know more from dramatic representations than from actual fact. Their tactics, hideouts, habits and organizational structures - yes, they had them, and they were often quite democratic - are all here. An enjoyable beach read.
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 Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates is an excellent book!! I love it! A must for all pirate lovers!
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Worth a serious look ( charley667 )
This book does a great job of separating the fact and the fiction of the history of pirates. It may be somewhat depressing to read at times such as the horrible revelation that for the most part pirates didn't have parrots nor were they particularly merciful to the crews they captured over the course of a raid.
For all of their faults Pirates were somewhat unique for a culture in the 16th, 17th and 18th century in so far as there was a genuine opportunity for advancement but the sorrowful truth is that most pirates far from getting rich exited this life at the end of a rope.
Overall-An excellent resource for serious historians or for people who are just curious about the subject.
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A History Major's Review ( acooldeal )
As a child pirates fascinated me, but as a college student studying history I found that serious forays into the historical truth of piracy were few and far between. My boyhood fascination and adult inquisitive nature both found outlets in Under The Black Flag. The book is written with the general population in mind but has enough for historians to gain further insights into the lives of pirates.
The book deals primarily with the pirates found in the Caribbean and North America, but gives brief accounts of pirate activity in the rest of the world as well. It profiles such figures as Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, Anne Bonney, Black Bart, and Calico Jack among others. The book even has a section on famous fictional pirates, reminding us of literary classics such as Long John Silver and Captain Hook.
If you have ever wanted to learn more about Pirates, this is the book for you.
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