The Pirate Wars

The acclaimed historian presents a “masterful . . . much-needed reappraisal” of pirate history from the Elizabethan Era to the nineteenth century ( Sunday Times , UK). In The Pirate Wars , maritime historian Peter Earle examines the popular image of pirates as ocean-going Robin Hoods who pursued a life of freedom and contrasts it with the grim reality. As he vividly demonstrates, pirates lived short, violent lives of pillaging, torture and murder. Earle charts 250 years of piracy, from Cornwall