![]() ![]() Rediker’s thesis is best summarized by the last line of the book wherein Rediker commands: “These outlaws (pirates) led audacious, rebellious lives, and we should remember them as long as there are powerful people and oppressive circumstances to be resisted (176)”. ![]() As opposed to discussing the nature of piracy from a neutral standpoint within the context of colonialism, the book works to vindicate pirates and piracy as a seemingly noble deviation from a system which was (truthfully) drenched in corruption and abuse. Like the quote above, Villains of All Nations seems to feed existing stereotypes and caricatures regarding pirates in popular culture today. That being said, Rediker, writes with an innate sense of purpose and a pervasive perspective, an agenda, if you will, which every reader should be cautioned about prior to or after reading the work. ![]() Marcus Rediker’s Villains of All Nations is undoubtedly an entertaining read for those interested in further understanding how the age of piracy developed and fit into the larger context of the colonial age and the Atlantic trade system. ![]()
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