Product Description

The legends that die hardest are those of the romantic outlaw, and those of swashbuckling pirates are surely among the most durable. Swift ships, snug inns, treasures buried by torchlight, palm-fringed beaches, fabulous riches, and, most of all, freedom from the mean life of the laboring man are the stuff of this tradition reinforced by many a novel and film.

It is disconcerting to think of such dashing scoundrels as slaves to economic forces, but so they were--as Robert Ritchie demonstrates in this lively history of piracy. He focuses on the shadowy figure of William Kidd, whose career in the late seventeenth century swept him from the Caribbean to New York, to London, to the Indian Ocean before he ended in Newgate prison and on the gallows. Piracy in those days was encouraged by governments that could not afford to maintain a navy in peacetime. Kidd's most famous voyage was sponsored by some of the most powerful men in England, and even though such patronage granted him extraordinary privileges, it tied him to the political fortunes of the mighty Whig leaders. When their influence waned, the opposition seized upon Kidd as a weapon. Previously sympathetic merchants and shipowners did an about-face too and joined the navy in hunting down Kidd and other pirates.

By the early eighteenth century, pirates were on their way to becoming anachronisms. Ritchie's wide-ranging research has probed this shift in the context of actual voyages, sea fights, and adventures ashore. What sort of men became pirates in the first place, and why did they choose such an occupation? What was life like aboard a pirate ship? How many pirates actually became wealthy? How were they governed? What large forces really caused their downfall?

As the saga of the buccaneers unfolds, we see the impact of early modern life: social changes and Anglo-American politics, the English judicial system, colonial empires, rising capitalism, and the maturing bureaucratic state are all interwoven in the story. Best of all, Captain Kidd and the War against the Pirates is an epic of adventure on the high seas and a tale of back-room politics on land that captures the mind and the imagination.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #497446 in Books
• Published on: 1989-03-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 318 pages

From Library Journal
This excellent volume explores the lives of pirates and probes deeply into the social, economic, and political forces that shaped those lives. Ritchie offers a compelling account, focusing on the legendary Captain Kidd, whose rise and fall more reflected the changing needs of landlocked merchants and princes than conditions at sea. He traces the golden age of piracy and places this in the historical context of seafaring through the millenia. This far-ranging book chronicles the daily life of the pirates, even as it helps us understand the appeal of pirate stories. A well-written and well-conceived volume; important reading for pirate fans and history buffs alike. Jay R. Kaufman, Massachusetts Bay Marine Studies Consortium, Boston
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
The most detailed record I have ever seen of a pirate voyage, with its origins and aftermath; I doubt if there is another like it. [Ritchie] has also placed it in its historic context, describing the political, and especially the economic events that shaped piracy in its age of transition...Captain Kidd is a first-rate book.
--George MacDonald Fraser (Washington Post )

[A] fascinating true story--not of moonlit beaches and buried treasure but of political intrigue and complicated business deal-making, not of swashbucklers on the high seas but of men who went to sea to escape a stifling social order so rigid that even the fabrics they could wear were prescribed...[Ritchie] makes the shadowy, myth-laden figure of William Kidd a real person, and not without sympathy.
--Jim Haskins (New York Times Book Review )

Fascinating...Captain Kidd emerges as a very real historical person, the victim of shifts in English and colonial politics, and changes in mercantile, imperial and legal attitudes...Ritchie...has sorted out the conflicting evidence in a masterful way. (Times Literary Supplement )

The wealth of descriptive detail, combined with attention to a broad canvas of world politics, transports the reader into the world of the seventeenth century sea-breathren in an unusually forceful way...A rollicking, roistering adventure which will make...compulsive reading. (Journal of Imperials and Commonwealth History )

About the Author
Robert C. Ritchie is Professor of History, University of California at San Diego.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Account of the Golden Age of Piracy
It is ironic that Captain Kidd is one of the most famous pirates of all time considering that he was probably one of the worst and most unlucky pirate of them all. This book chronicles the adventures of those most "notorious of pirates" and gives an excellent account of the times that came to be known as the Golden Age of Piracy from about 1695-1730. Here are found names like Edward Teach, or Blackbeard as he is better known, Bartholomew Roberts, Edward England, and their ilk. Armed with tales of hidden treasure and cold steel cutlasses, Robert Ritchie weaves a wonderful tale of the time of the pirates as they plundered shipping and coastal towns from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean in search of excitement and riches. The book focuses on the exploits of William Kidd, a man hired as a pirate hunter in a time when crime on the high seas was taking its toll on an emerging global commerce. Kidd is a poor pirate hunter, but when his crew evetually threatens to mutiny, he is forced to turn to piracy himself. We see Kidd slowly spiral into oblivion as his crew and his life are pulled into the blackest depths of self-destruction. Kidd is finally captured by treachery and put on trial as a scapegoat for the financial ruin and embarrassment he has caused his secret aristocratic backers; made the victim of a conspiracy gone awry. This is a great book on a fascinating subject that has too often been shrouded in myth.

A fundamental book in piracy, definitely a classic.
Robert C. Ritchie's "Captain Kidd and the War Against the Pirates" is definitely a classic text on pirate history, fundamental for those interested in serious investigation on the theme. It deals with the chapter known as "The Pirate Round", when some pirate captains decided to abandon the Caribbean and search for plunder in the Indian Ocean. They were specially looking for the Muslim Fleets that travelled to Mecca in pilgrimage, with huge treasures and just a few soldiers. Some pirates achieved ever-lasting fame when they plundered the Muslims, the most notorious were Henry Avery and Thomas Tew. Captain William Kidd was sent in a special mission to supress piracy and ended up becoming a pirate himself. Professor Ritchie has accomplished the impossible when he wrote the biography of Captain Kidd, since pirates are obscure figures in history and all the facts known about them has to be uncovered and separated from thousands of myths. This is an accurate biography of one of the most notorious pirates, were the myth and the reality are well stablished and separated. It also provides an excellent description of the maritime world of the time, the East India Company and the political intrigues in the British Parliament that led to the hanging of Captain Kidd in 1701. It is definitely one of the most useful books in pirate history.

A different view of Captain Kidd.
Ritchie does an extremely able job of refocusing the story of Captain Kidd away from being a personal drama. Instead, he builds an image of the world where Kidd was one of many trying their luck at this (then) semi-legal trade. Piracy was the only place left for a sailor who loved the sea but not the navy.

As a reader, it was interesting to see Kidd transformed from the pirate figure of legend into a semi-competent adventurer who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in British history. Ritchie also provides a fascinating look at the 17th-18th century justice systems.

Ritchie is less of a writer than a historian, unfortunately. There were a number of places at the beginning of the book where I felt lost as to where he was trying to go. However, as another reader notes, this improves later on in the book.

Recommended for readers with a particular interest in pirates.