Marcus Rediker

Pirates have long been stock figures in popular culture, from Treasure Island to the more recent antics of Jack Sparrow. Villains of all Nations unearths the thrilling historical truth behind such fictional characters and rediscovers their radical democratic challenge to the established powers of the day.

In a chilling exploration of a nearly forgotten chapter of history, Marcus Rediker delves into the dark depths of slave ships in the 18th century.In this widely praised history of an infamous institution, award-winning scholar Marcus Rediker shines a light into the darkest corners of the British and American slave ships of the eighteenth century. With meticulous detail, Rediker uncovers the harsh realities of the slave trade, shedding light on the inhumane treatment of captives and the power dynamics aboard the ships. From the economic motivations driving the trade to the efforts of abolitionists, this book reveals the birth of African American culture amidst a backdrop of horror and despair. Drawing on thirty years of research in maritime archives, court records, diaries, and firsthand accounts, The Slave Ship is riveting and sobering in its revelations, reconstructing in chilling detail a world nearly lost to history: the "floating dungeons" at the forefront of the birth of African American culture. This is a powerful and important addition to the study of history, shedding light on a tragedy that should never be forgotten.

The slave ship was the instrument of history's greatest forced migration and a key to the origins and growth of global capitalism, yet much of its history remains unknown. Marcus Rediker uncovers the extraordinary human drama that played out on this world-changing vessel. Drawing on thirty years of maritime research, he demonstrates the truth of W.E.B DuBois's observation: the slave trade was the most magnificent drama in the last thousand years of human history. The Slave Ship focuses on the so-called golden age of the slave trade, the period of 1700-1808, when more than six million people were transported out of Africa, most of them on British and American ships, across the Atlantic, to slave on New World plantations. Marcus Rediker tells poignant tales of life, death and terror as he captures the shipboard drama of brutal discipline and fierce resistance. He reconstructs the lives of individuals, such as John Newton, James Field Stanfield and Olaudah Equiano, and the collective experience of captains, sailors and slaves. Mindful of the haunting legacies of race, class and slavery, Marcus Rediker offers a vivid and unforgettable portrait of the ghost ship of our modern consciousness.

Under några få år på 1700-talet lades grunden för de historier om pirater som sedan aldrig upphört att fascinera eftervärlden. Då skapades Jolly Roger, den skräckinjagande flaggan med dödskalle och benknotor. Då gjorde Kapten Svartskägg, de kvinnliga piraterna Anne Bonny och Mary Read och en rad andra färgstarka karaktärer Atlanten och Karibiska havet till livsfarliga farvatten för varje seglare. På något av dessa piratskepp haltade också den träbente sjörövare fram som kom att stå modell för Long John Silver i Skattkammarön. I Pirater berättar Marcus Rediker om denna sjöröveriets guldålder framför andra. Historien om de verkliga piraterna visar sig inte stå fiktionen efter när det gäller dramatik. Därtill rymmer den en social dimension som sällan berörs i filmer och böcker om pirater. Piraterna utgjorde inte bara ett hot mot handel och sjöfart. Genom sin demokratiska organisering utgjorde de också ett hot mot den existerande samhällsordningen. I stark kontrast till de samtida despotiska staterna och de hårda arbetsförhållandena ombord på handelsskepp och örlogsfartyg, växte bland pirater fram ett egenartat egalitärt samhälle där kaptenen valdes av manskapet, spriten fördelades jämnt och människor av olika ras, klass, nationalitet och kön arbetade sida vid sida. Fattiga såg piraterna som hjältar. Sjömän lockades att desertera till dem för att få ett drägligare liv. I längden kunde inte stormakterna tolerera detta. Piraterna utnämndes till hela mänsklighetens fiender och många av dem slutade sina dagar i galgen. Men i den folkliga fantasin segrade de. Där har piraterna fått en förmodligen evig revansch mot sina banemän. ”Redikers bok är mycket underhållande, levande och full av äventyr och ögonvittnesskildringar.” Caroline Leavitt i Boston Globe ”En fascinerande bok om piraterna som frihetspionjärer.” Sverker Lenas i DN ”En strålande bok... ett mycket gediget forskningsmaterial och ett bra språk gör Pirater till en mycket intressant och angenäm läsupplevelse.” Anders Moverare i Dagbladet

"Villains of All Nations" explores the 'Golden Age' of Atlantic piracy (1716-1726) and the infamous generation whose images underlie our modern, romanticized view of pirates. 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 Treasure Island. 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. "From the Hardcover edition."

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea focuses upon the seamen's experience in order to illuminate larger historical issues such as the rise of capitalism, the genesis of free wage labor, and the growth of an international working class. These epic themes were intimately bound up with the everyday hopes and fears of the common men who toiled upon the deep.