|
Winner of the Merle Curti Social History Award
(Organization of American Historians) and the John Hope Franklin Prize (American
Studies Association) |
Seamen, captains, and pirates occupy a special place in our popular culture,
yet until now the historical record of their lives has been remarkably
neglected. This brilliant account of the maritime world of the
eighteenth-century reconstructs in detail the social and cultural milieu of
Anglo-American seafaring and piracy. Rediker follows sailors and their ships
along the pulsing trade routes, into ports with their crowded waterfront society
of brothels, alehouses, brawls and jails, and paints a compelling picture of
their world at sea with its brutal labour, harsh discipline, hangings and
floggings.
The book's focus on maritime experience illuminates the broader
historical sweep of the rise of capitalism and the growth of an
international working class - epic themes which were intimately bound up
with everyday lives of seafaring men. |
