Villains of All Nations Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age

<b>A must-have hardcover edition of the watershed book on 18th-century pirates and the amazingly democratic and egalitarian communities they created<br><br>Part of the Beacon Classics series</b><br><br> <i>Villains of All Nations</i> explores the “Golden Age” of Atlantic piracy (1716-1726) and the infamous generation whose images underlie our modern, romanticized view of pirates.<br><br>Rediker introduces us to the dreaded black flag, the Jolly Roger; swashbuckling figures such as Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard; and the unnamed, unlimbed pirate who was likely Robert Louis Stevenson's model for Long John Silver in <i>Treasure Island</i>.<br><br>This history shows from the bottom up how sailors emerged from deadly working conditions on merchant and naval ships, turned pirate, and created a starkly different reality aboard their own ships, electing their officers, dividing their booty equitably, and maintaining a multinational social order. The real lives of this motley crew —which included cross-dressing women, people of color, and the “outcasts of all nations"—are far more compelling than contemporary myth.