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ClodiaNotClaudia t1_j6sifl9 wrote

Any recommendations for books about piracy during or after the Elizabethan era?

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Skookum_J t1_j6tjd1u wrote

Could check out The Pirate Queen, by Susan Ronald. It's about the court of Elizabeth and the "adventurers" that she surrounded herself with. To the French and Spanish, they were Pirates, but to the English they were "privateers" or gentleman adventurers.

Edit: saw you're also looking for stuff on after the Elizabethan era.

Empire of Blue Water, by Stephan Talty. is a great biography of Henry Morgan. Technically he was a Privateer, and he would have been pissed if you called him a Pirate. But for everyone but the English, he was The Pirate.

Under the Black Flag, by David Cordingly is a great overview of piracy up to and through the Golden Age of piracy. Dispells some of the myths, and tells the real stories behind some of the most famous Pirates.

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elmonoenano t1_j6xxgdu wrote

There's been a few AMAs on /r/askhistorians about piracy from people promoting their books. This one sounds like it would be the closest to what you're asking about: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/9gv3ax/iama_history_lecturer_who_is_an_expert_on_the/

Another: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/k04tmz/ama_the_golden_age_of_piracy/

Another: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1fpy0w/wednesday_ama_piracy_from_antiquity_to_the_present/

And this is a little tidbit from my local history society. It' hypothesizes that Sir. Francis Drake actually was in Oregon when he came up the Pacific coast and not north of San Francisco. I don't really buy it, but it is fun and she raises some interesting issues about language that kind of highlight the difficulties of assessing what these early explorers meant when they didn't know the languages or the different peoples they were encountering. https://youtu.be/oPq92OMJnBE

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