Overview

It's easy to think of piracy as a romantic way of life long gone-if not for today's frightening headlines of robbery and kidnapping on the high seas. Pirates have existed since the invention of commerce itself, but they reached the zenith of their power during the 1600s, when the Mediterranean was the crossroads of the world and pirates were the scourge of Europe and the glory of Islam. They attacked ships, enslaved crews, plundered cargoes, enraged governments, and swayed empires, wreaking havoc from Gibraltar to the Holy Land and beyond. Historian and author Adrian Tinniswood brings alive this dynamic chapter in history, where clashes between pirates of the East (Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli) and governments of the West (England, France, Spain, and Venice) grew increasingly intense and dangerous. In vivid detail, Tinniswood recounts the brutal struggles, glorious triumphs, and enduring personalities of the pirates of the Barbary Coast, and how their maneuverings between the Muslim empires and Christian Europe shed light on the religious and moral battles that still rage today. As Tinniswood notes in Pirates of Barbary, Pirates are history. In this fascinating and entertaining book, he reveals that the history of piracy is also the history that shaped our modern world.

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9781400149247

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Reviews

Tinniswood gives us both a rollicking narrative and a rich brew of early modern maritime history. ---Publishers Weekly

Chafer provides a good narration, [and] the subject matter...holds the listener's attention. ---AudioFile

Author Information

Historian Adrian Tinniswood is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Verneys: A True Story of Love, War, and Madness in Seventeenth-Century England, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. Clive Chafer is a professional actor, director, and producer, as well as a theater instructor. He is the founder of TheatreFIRST, Oakland's only professional, season-producing theater company, where he served as artistic director until 2008. He teaches classical dramatic literature and other subjects at the University of San Francisco.

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