Enemies of All: The Rise and Fall of the Pirates
About this ebook
You know what a pirate is. You know how they dress, how they speak. If you think of the word 'pirate', you most probably think of black flags and peg legs, cutlasses and cannon, walking the plank and buried treasure. These stereotypes are familiar and entertaining, but they aren't the whole truth.
Or, perhaps, they were never true at all.
From their origins and identities to their everyday lives and exploits, Enemies of All is a voyage of discovery that investigates piracy's incredible, and often unrecognised, impact on history. Socially, economically and politically, pirates moulded European empires as they rose to global power in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They shaped our modern world and left behind troubling legacies.
You will never see pirates in the same way again.
About the author
RICHARD BLAKEMORE has studied pirates for over a decade, from his Cambridge Ph.D to his role as Associate Professor in Social and Maritime History at the University of Reading, where he teaches the most popular module, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Empire, Slavery, and Society, 1550-1750’. He has been a consultant for the National Maritime Museum; appeared on local and national BBC radio; on Channel 5’s Great British Ships; produced two series of podcasts; and written for blogs and magazines such as History Today.