Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia

A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting.The spine remains undamaged. 'A characteristically radical re-reading of history that places the social and political experiments of pirates at the heart of the European Enlighten ment. A brilliant companion volume to the best-selling Dawn of Everything' Amitav Ghosh The Enlightenment did not begin in Europe. Its true origins lie thousands o f miles away on the island of Madagascar, in the late seventeenth century, when it was home to several thousand pirates. This was the Golden Age of Pi racy, a period of violent buccaneering and rollicking legends - but it was also, argues anthropologist David Graeber, a brief window of radical democr acy, as the pirate settlers attempted to apply the egalitarian principles o f their ships to a new society on land. For Graeber, Madagascar's lost pirate utopia represents some of the first s tirrings of Enlightenment political thought. In this jewel of a book, he of fers a way to 'decolonize the Enlightenment', demonstrating how this mixed community experimented with an alternative vision of human freedom, far fro m that being formulated in the salons and coffee houses of Europe. Its acto rs were Malagasy women, merchants and traders, philosopher kings and escape d slaves, exploring ideas that were ultimately to be put into practice by W estern revolutionary regimes a century later. Pirate Enlightenment playfully dismantles the central myths of the Enlightenment. In their place comes a story about the magic, sea battles, purloined princesses, manhunts, make-believe kingdoms, fraudule.

Product Info

ISBN: 0241611407

ISBN-13: 9780241611401

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Year: 2023

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

First Edition

Seller Info

InfinityBooksJapan

Address: 1F Komagata Heights Bldg Tokyo,

Website: https://www.infinitybooksjapan.com

Country: Japan