Pirates lived in a Libertarian Paradise!!!!

Basically, it's "Freaknomics" with pirates - trying to explain piracy in terms of economic rationalism. Sounds fun, right? Somewhere early on in the book, something goes horribly, horribly wrong. The book is generally unhistorical, and armed with a few facts, the author goes on to make many conclusions. Some of those conclusions are just plain strange, and a few verge into offensive territory. Most of the conclusions serve a subtext of the book, namely that the pirates created something of a perfect Libertarian society. Even I, who arcs Libertarian in thought, call B.S. on this. There's just not enough to support the claims. The picture is over the top. As such, the book is pretty well a wasted opportunity. There's not enough untainted pirate information to make it a worthwhile read on that account, and there's plenty of better writers on economic philosophy to make it a good read on that account.

10 people found this helpful

A great read for people who love pirate history.

The book sucked drew me in with it's premise (whacky economics and pirates) and delivered. The narrator speaks with a clear, calm voice explaining the economic rational behind violent (and in the chapter on torture the first hand accounts Leeson cites are graphically violent) sea banditry in the 18th century Carribean.

Leeson has obviously done his research; taking 17th century primary sources such as government documents and first hand accounts of piracy an applying modern economic theory to explain it.

The only drawback I can forsee with this book is that a reader who doesn't have any prior knowledge of the carribean pirates may need to pick up an Eyewitness series or other book on piracy to understand a bit more of the context.

If you like pirates, history, economics, or theories on why people commit violent crimes this book is a must listen.

3 people found this helpful

Fun way to learn basic econ

This book is a fun way to learn some basic economic principles, and uses those principles to help readers/listeners understand why pirates acted the way they did, and why they organized their floating societies the way they did.

1 person found this helpful

Doubtful history

I wouldn't base any true history on the suppositions made in this book. There is simply isn't enough real data out there about pirates to decide that they had this wonderful society. I think that is merely wishful thinking, no different than thinking that chivalry really meant something in the middle ages other than dressing up warfare into a pretty package. This is the same thing only dressing up thievery.

1 person found this helpful

Governance innovations by pirates.

Very interesting research into pirates of the late 17th and early 8th centuries. How pursuit of self interests led to new social systems that bled into mainstream society over time. Overall a great book but could have been better with less repetition.

Watch the CGP Grey Video instead

I was pretty excited to read this book, but I was pretty sorely disappointed.

The information is interesting but is not conveyed well. The text is extremely repetitive

The other big complaint is the weird sort of side track it takes in the last chapter to turn the book into some argument for libertarian conservatives. I am not going to argue the validity of the points made but they were so awkwardly shoehorned in to be off-putting.

great read

I guess I am enough of a pirate nerd that there wasn't much in here that was new for me, but it was still nice to hear so many of my economic and political musings about the golden age of piracy compiled and broken down in a skillful and engaging way.

my only criticism would be that I would have enjoyed some mention and comparison with piracy, merchant sailing and whaling. I personally find it interesting how the terms of crewing on a whaler shared aspects of merchant sailing, in the way that most whalers were financed by various owners on land, but also some of the profit sharing mechanism of pirate ships with crew getting shares of the spoils. since the sailers of a merchant ship simply had to sail the craft well enough to get from port to port without poor performance enough to be punished, profit sharing mechanisms were very uncommon, but on a whaler the crew needed incentives to risk their safety and expend considerable effort to pursue prizes much like their pirate sailor cousins. but nitpicking aside I very much enjoyed this book.

Excellent Read!

This book was not only educational, but insightful and a lot of fun to listen to as well! Pirates have a whole new dimension for me now. I found the in-depth description of the profit driven social organization truly fascinating.

Very interesting, bad narration.

Interesting and insightful, a great window to the economics of piracy.
I'd recommend this book for mangers as one can reflect on his/her team situation and maybe gain some ideas.

However the narrator is very slow and it was challenging to finish this book.

Tedious and repetitive

An interesting subject, and some good points made, but the author can’t seem to explain anything without immediately explaining it again, and then explaining it a third time for good measure. It feels like padding and gets old very fast.