A Fun, Insightful Look at the Rise and Fall of Caribbean Pirates

Angus Konstam’s drama-filled ‘Pirate Menace’ presents the great pirate captains, how they dominated the Caribbean, and what it took to end their Golden Age.

"The Pirate Menace" is Angus Konstam's latest addition to his pirate bibliography.

For all their reckless violence, immoral behavior, and suffering they caused on the high seas, pirates, specifically the 18th-century pirates who sailed along the Caribbean, have long been painted with a mythic brush. From the classic literature of Robert Louis Stevenson to Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean,” flamboyance seems to define the age of pirates. It is true that flamboyance was part of the piratical character, but as Angus Konstam demonstrates in his new book, the pirate was many things. Oddly enough, some of those things prove quite relatable to the average modern person.

Konstam, one of the leading scholars on pirates, has produced a new work that focuses on a rather brief period of pirate history. “The Pirate Menace: Uncovering the Golden Age of Piracy” discusses how piracy began in the Caribbean, presents those flamboyant pirates and pirate-hunters, and describes just how this “pirate menace” was finally drubbed out.

Engaging Starts

The Scottish author has literally written scores of books, typically on war and pirates. It is not simply his topics that lure readers, but his engaging writing does as well. Konstam chose to start “The Pirate Menace” twice—arguably three times—but then again, who reads the prologue and introduction? In his prologue, he begins with an action-filled and daring exploit of the pirate captain, Charles Vane, who attempted a nighttime attack by using one of his ships as a bomb. It is a memorable start. Konstam, however, sidesteps that story—one he returns to later—by telling the reader in the introduction how he came to start writing about pirates.