Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy

"Over the last couple of decades, an ideological battle has raged over the political legacy and cultural symbolism of the 'golden age' pirates who roamed the seas between the Caribbean Islands and the Indian Ocean from roughly 1690 to 1725. They are depicted as romanticized villains on the one hand and as genuine social rebels on the other. [This book] examines the political and cultural significance of these nomadic outlaws by relating historical accounts to a wide range of theoretical concepts--reaching from Marshall Sahlins and Pierre Clastres to Mao Zedong and Eric J. Hobsbawm via Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault"--Provided by publisher