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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.45
EAN num: 9781592573769
ISBN number: 1592573762
Label: Alpha
Manufacturer: Alpha
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 416
Printing Date: April 04, 2006
Publishing house: Alpha
Sale Popularity Level: 48869
Studio: Alpha
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
A view of pirate life—from the crow’s nest …
Pirate lore has captured our fancy for centuries. Here is the very first series book that gives readers a comprehensive yet entertaining history of those swashbuckling brigands. It offers portraits of such infamous men and women as Blackbeard, Captain Anne Bonny, Captain Kidd, and Jean LaFitte, with a full history of pirates through the ages, even modern day, high-tech scavengers of the South China seas. For mateys young and old.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Idiot, from the Greek "idiotes" and once used to denote a person with mental retardation not only aptly describes the author of this complete waste of good trees, it also describes what the reader will be after finishing the book, should the reader lack a priori knowledge of history, literature, or pirates that did not come from a Disney film.
Gail Selinger, who may have a talent for weaving fiction (if her research and phrasing are any indication), has written a tome that claims to educate and whet the appetite for the study of piracy, an already poorly understood subject outside of its popular culture connotations, but in fact writes a pamphlet to further some biased feminist agenda. The book plays fast and loose with historical data, providing unsubstantiated claims at the best of times and downright falsehoods everywhere else. Starting with the pirates of the ancient world, Mz. Selinger's revisionist history feminist agenda emerges. It is brought into sharp focus when she moves into her glossed over discusion of the Vikings. Despite a very accurate footnote telling the reader that despite popular image Vikings never wore horned helmets, everything about the Viking chapter is ripped from pop culture and fantasy novels. Mz. Selinger seems to be under the mistaken impression that Viking women were professional warriors, Dark Ages Thelma and Louise types that took up sword and shield to raid with the men, or stayed home and defended their turf while the men went a pirating; despite all evidence to the contrary. What little information about the vikings that is presented seems gleaned from a children's encyclopedia or a role playing handbook, rather than a serious study of ancient and pre-medieval peoples. While a little fun is expected in a book with the word "idiot" in the title, to pass off such ill-researched populist pablum as scholarly research, or worse yet present it as truth, printed from a position of authority, is unforgivable. How can anything written in the book be trusted if such obvious agenda laden inaccuracies plague the very first chapters? Simply, it cannot. Any truth or accuracy in the book is the merest happenstance and serendipity, as any purposeful deviation from her agenda would be anathema to this "author", whose purpose seems to focus upon misplaced feminism and abjure truth while presenting a history that never was as fact. There are much better books written covering the same material, and I urge you to seek them out instead, lest you forever remain, as the title describes, a complete idiot.
Rated by buyers 
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Am not finished yet, but so far . . . Beginning was a bit slow (pirates in classical times, etc.) but when the author progressed to discussing pirate "accessories" (types of weapons, typical ship-board activities, various customs of pirates) the book picked up considerably. Some of these details I was familiar with, however the authors displayed an encyclopedic knowledge of these genres which I appreciated.
Rated by buyers 
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This book is just darn solid. There is a ton of information on everything from pirate clothes to their lifestyle to where they lived and who they were. You even get a history lesson on pirating which goes back to the Romans.
The book seems to do a remarkable in that it gives you just enough detail but not so much that you are begging for a chapter to end. Every time I started to get bored I'd turn the page and I'd be at the end of the chapter. It's always just enough to be informative and not so much that you get bored.
At the same time, because it covers a lot of ground, you may not learn as much about someone you wanted to know more about. Pirates often come and go in a couple of pages but then this book isn't selling itself as an in-depth historical treatise. If you want a book on a specific individual or facet of pirate life seek elsewhere.
Overall, it's a fast, informative, good read and well deserving of 5-stars.
Rated by buyers -
.... in fact, it's scholarship worthy of the college syllabus, while at the same time a real page turner! You learn about a lot more than pirates here. The "guide" is more of a lens into world history. You won't be able to put it down.
Rated by buyers -
From Angus Konstam to Richard Zacks, I've read a lot of books on this subject, but Ms. Selinger's concise yet comprehensive overview of the history of Piracy consistently enriched and enlarged My store of knowledge.I would highly recommend this book to all readers, and especially as an introduction to the
fascinating History of "The Sweet Trade".
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