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Pirates Of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests And Captivity In The 17th-Century Mediterranean (2010)

by Adrian Tinniswood(Favorite Author)

3.46 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0224085263 (ISBN13: 9780224085267)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Jonathan Cape

review 1: Things I knew about pirates before I read this book: Thomas Jefferson sent sailors to beat them up--thus "from the shores of Tripoli.Things I knew after reading this book: A lot more.It's weird to think of an entire economy based on taking over ships and stealing all their stuff. However, that's effectively how the pirate states in north Africa paid their bills. This book goes through not only the beginning of piracy (the British called them "privateers" when they were stealing from Spain), but also the expansion of the Berber states. It also goes through the eventual fall of the states when TJ did that thing that got into that song.It's a book filled with information. LOTS OF INFORMATION. BRAIN-CLOGGING INFORMATION.So why a three?It wasn't fun. I didn't have any fun at al... morel. None. It was interesting, but then got lost in the details that I couldn't dig myself out of. I lost track of time periods and when and who and what. After a while, I gave up and resigned to being somewhat confused.So yeah...three.
review 2: This book turnt out to be more of a litany of individual experiences rather than an overview of Mediterranean piracy. I would have been fine with many or even a majority of first-hand accounts, but instead of any attempt at a synthesis of experience or a helpful overview of the meaning of all of this, it instead felt like an unending catalogue of piratical doings. Interesting enough, but once I'd had my fill, and seeing none of the higher order analysis that I sought, I quit reading the book about halfway through. less

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