Title:: [[Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia]] Authors:: [[David Graeber]] Tags:: #pirates #nonfiction #history #anthropology Read:: [[2023-01-22]] ## Editions - Edition:: [[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]], Uncorrected Proof, 2023 - Original Copyright:: 2023 - Pages:: 155 ## Annotations Graeber’s The Dawn of Everything (with David Wengrow) was one of the more fascinating books I read last year. In particular, the way in which it dismantles the idea of history as being the succession of white European dominos neatly falling into one another. He and Wengrow trace how those white European ideas were often influenced by people and places white washed as primitive or savage.  Pirate Enlightenment is a much shorter examination of the same theme, using 18th Century Madagascar and the influence of pirates on its culture and governance, to make the same point.  I learned a lot about the history of Madagascar and how its location near key trade routes made it an attractive place for pirates to settle. Graeber describes a world that’s not unlike the Mos Eisley Cantina, a place where people from all over the world came and went, bringing ideas to and from, ultimately having more influence on human history than it gets credit for.  Pirate Enlightenment is being published posthumously this week. Thanks [@fsgbooks](https://www.instagram.com/fsgbooks/) for a copy!