Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Enemy of All Mankind, Steven Johnson



Started: 8/2/2020
Completed: 8/4/2020
Recommendation:  Recommended
Recommended By: The Washington Post

Review:

If you do not know a lot about a particular pirate, it pays to describe what you do know.  Henry Avery was the first pirate subject to an international manhunt back in the 1600s.  Very little is known about him, although there is some first hand knowledge from letters he wrote and court testimony.  He was the second pirate to have a huge score, but he was by far the most famous.  This story literally covers the globe and offers interesting tidbits like that the East India Company was the first publicly held stock.  This was a really interesting story, but bear with it because the beginning seems hardly connected.  It turns out all the ground had to be covered and by intermixing the early events with each other, there are no long runs of seemingly irrelevant material.

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