Great non-fiction writers can make any topic interesting and Steven Johnson is one of the great ones, he's done it over and over with various topics-- innovations and ideas, cholera, the history of air, organized complexity, decision-making, video games and TV, etcetera-- and in his new book, he astounded me by taking a topic that I always thought was kind played out and juvenile: pirates-- but Johnson's take on pirates is different . . . he puts them in global context, but I should warn you, Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt is not a book that focuses on swashbuckling and sword-fighting-- although that stuff comes up-- instead it portrays pirates (specifically Henry Every) as a bundle of contradictions: democratic rapists; multi-cultural xenophobes; contract abiding torturers; free-spirited slave traders . . . it's a lot to take in, but Johnson does it in a fast breezy style and the history of the Mughal Dynasty and the East India Company goes down fairly easy.
4 comments:
A good friend of mine is seemingly always up in arks about the glorification of pirates, whom he seems to be the worst people in the world. He also says that Oasis is the best band in the world, so we haven’t necessarily fallen in line on the pirates thing, but he’s probably correct.
Raiders of the lost Arks?
Or The Arcs with Dan Auerbach?
yeah, he must have read this book-- i'm finishing up my podcast that untangles some of the contradictions, but they were up to some sketchy shit.
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