Summer Session 2022 Course Information

HIST 357 – Topics in Early European History: Atlantic Piracy

Ahoy! Few figures cast a greater shadow over maritime history than that of the pirate. Did they really all have parrots, walk the plank, and drink rum? Images of their romanticized lifestyle permeate a wide range of media: novels, music, comics, films, video games, and even liquor advertising. Yet this nostalgic fascination makes it easy to forget the very grim realities of a life devoted to high seas crime. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, thousands of people from strikingly different backgrounds were involved in Atlantic piracy. This course will introduce the history of early modern piracy; analyze official attempts to define, prohibit, and punish different forms of maritime criminality; explore the diverse men and women who participated in it; and consider piracy’s twenty-first century legacy.