Product Description

"Angus Konstam successfully combines a vivid account of a famous pirate with a richly detailed survey of his turbulent and brutal world."
—David Cordingly, author of Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates

"Angus Konstam's Blackbeard is more than the story of one pirate, much more. Konstam paints a wide canvas of Blackbeard and his life and times, of the whole sordid and frightening world of piracy. With writing that is at once elegant and accessible, he explores the rise of the 'Golden Age' of piracy, illustrating how simple merchant sailors and privateersmen could be drawn into the most bloody profession of all, and become enemies of the world. Using the pirate Blackbeard as a starting point, Konstam gives the reader a broad understanding of the world of 17th century piracy, from the lives of the men who sailed under the black flag to those who tried to stop them. Blackbeard is a great read - informed, scholarly, thorough, accurate and fun."
—James L. Nelson, author of the Brethren of the Coast Trilogy and Benedict Arnold's Navy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #632742 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-05
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Konstam, the Scottish author of more than 50 maritime history books here explores the dreaded Blackbeard, "the archetypal pirate of the age...and one of the most fearsome figures around." Konstam makes a thorough, exciting examination of 18th century pirate life, with wonderful details such as the pirates' code, which can read as a precursor to America's own Bill of Rights: "Every man has a Vote in Affairs of Monument, has equal Title to the fresh Provisions, or strong Liquors, at any Time seized & use them at pleasure." However, the author's portrait of the seadog fails for two reasons: first, very little is known about Blackbeard, and Konstam hasn't been able to uncover much that's new; "we must assume" becomes a frequent, frustrating qualifier when the book focuses on its subject. Secondly, Konstram is fond of cliches: a ruler's power base collapses "like a house of cards" while another is able to "walk the political tightrope;" and the feared pirate himself "would stop at nothing to get what he wanted." The padding necessary to produce a lengthy version of Blackbeard's story produces a work that has little of the dash and derring-do readers will expect from the biography of a pirate, and ends up painting Blackbeard less as a terror of the high seas than a bully with a big boat. Illustrations.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
The so-called golden age of pirates (roughly, the first two decades of the eighteenth century) still conjures up images of tough, hardy, colorful rogues who chose to live outside the bounds of conventional society. Perhaps the best known of the pirates was Edward Teach, better known to contemporaries and to history as Blackbeard. Konstam is a former naval officer and marine archaeologist who has written extensively on piracy. He has provided an interesting and exciting biography of an enigmatic figure who defies easy categorization. Konstam does not romanticize Blackbeard, or the life of pirates in general. Blackbeard was apparently a ruthless, brutal man. He was by no means the most successful pirate, and his string of spectacular "achievements" lasted less than two years. Thankfully, Komstam spares us blather about "pirate honor," but he convincingly maintains that Blackbeard was a compelling figure with great seamanship skills and an audacious temperament, which inspired men to follow him. This is a thoroughly enjoyable chronicle of an interesting life and interesting era. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"...the fearsome role model for a new breed of screen pirates..." (The Scotsman, July 2006)

"...real pirate of the Caribbean..." (The Daily Mirror, July 2006)

Customer Reviews

Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate
Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate is a great book on Edward Teach, he certainly was the most fright-inducing pirate that ever lived... bar none! This is a great pirate book!

Pyrate Dan
Honestly I'm shocked that such a renowned author would write so little about the subject in the book's title. This was a book about piracy in general but the exploits of Blackbeard appear in maybe half the book with nothing particularly new to learn.

But what bothered me most was when the crew of Blackbeard was to be tried and hung for piracy. Mr. Konstam constantly referred to the four black pirates of the crew as "African-American". This is certainly premature as the USA (which is the American part of African-American) wouldn't even come into existence for another 60+ years! These black pirates were African not African-American. I HATE political correctness!
AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

The real story of Blackbeard.
Konstam does a nice job of summarizing the place of pirates in naval history. The age of piracy existed for only a very short time in the early 1700s. Blackbeard as a pirate existed only for a little over two years. Pirates plundered ships of their wealth and most often let their prey go after taking anything of ready value. They did not make the crew walk the plank. In fact, merchant seaman often joined them from the ships that were plundered.

The author does a nice job of detailing the life of pirates and trying to piece together the life of Edmund Teach (Blackbeard). However his long explanations and detailed analysis did not lend itself to the flow of the book. I found the reading somewhat difficult going through. The book obviously lacked some flow. I give the author high marks for the thorough research on his subject.

This is an OK read. There are several books about pirates on the library shelf, and all lend themselves to an explanation of the age of piracy.