Villains of All Nations

The Villains of All Nations is book written by Marcus Rediker that follows the origins of the pirate boom before and after the War of Spanish Succession. The book covers infamous pirates like Bartholomew Roberts, William Fly, and Edward Teach also known as Blackbeard.It discusses the grim environment of working the seas for the government, what lead many people to turn to piracy, the tale of the first women pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, how piracy impacted slavery, the pirates bonds of brotherhood under the Jolly Roger, and the events that lead to the death of the pirate era itself. Many times the writing style of the book at time felt distracting, confusing, and even frustrating. For example, whenever Rediker would refer to a quote to back his argument, he would present the quote word for word in the same language people used back then just as they talked without the the author directly trying to decipher what exactly the quote was trying to say. The letter on page 82 where Governor Spotswood letter concerning the growing number of pirates is a good example. For me this was confusing because I think the author assumed that the reader knew pirate lingo thus me having to take the surrounding text and understand it in my own way. Another issue that slowed and at time made me reevaluate what I was reading was the random capitalization of words that are not even nouns like Convenient, Warning, and Flying Aspect. Although the book lacked illustrations of the author style of providing his ideas with plenty of quotes and factual examples of events enforced to me that Marcus Rediker credibility was never in question. The authors style of writing although receptive provides plenty of evidence with quotes and examples of proven events to enforce his ideas. Something I noticed while reading is that most of the important information was on the first few pages followed by examples or events to support Redikers ideas. This was the case in chapter six about the women