Description: Pirates contributed to the British understanding of trans-oceanic navigation, patterns of trade and remote communities. This knowledge advanced imperial expansion, which helps to explain why contemporary attitudes towards piracy were ambivalent. This book, an engaging study of vested interests and conflicting ideologies, shows how pirates were portrayed in trial reports, novels, legal documents, sermons, ballads and newspapers. It throws light on contemporary ideals of leadership and masculinity, gives insight into the domestic life of pirates, and offers comparisons with our experience of piracy today.
Review Quotes:
'In terms of research, Lincoln employs a fairly comprehensive strategy, encompassing a variety of excellent sources including newspaper accounts, trial reports, parliamentary debates, and ballads as well as most of the leading scholarly works on the topic of British piracy...Well-chosen illustrations, with an assortment of black-and-white figures and color plates taken mainly from the rich collection of the National Maritime Museum, enhance the readability of this book. Sound scholarship, engagingly expressed, such as produced here by Lincoln, should find its mark among educators, researchers, and nonscholars alike.'
Michael F. Dove, Western University, H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online
"Lincoln has been able to uncover a wide array of representations and the result is a fascinating and thought-provoking book."
Rebecca Lush, The University of Sydney, Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies