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Anonymous
Posted May 23, 2008
A reviewer
I thought I knew the history of the American Revolution pretty well--George Washington, Valley Forge, Yorktown, and John Paul Jones's 'I've not yet begun to fight.' But this book brings not so much a different picture as a different perspective. The action moves from the Boston siege of 1776 to the West Indies, the English Channel, then back to the American coastline. It fits together through the idea of private citizens acting like pirates in order to get free and get rich at the same time. There are plenty of sea battles, but there's also stuff on Continental finances, entrepreneurialism, political corruption, and the tragedy that came to certain Revolutionary leaders because of their involvement with privateering. The author is good at mixing stories of those leaders with stories of seamen and captains we've never heard of. Anyone who reads this is going to have a better understanding about who were the American Revolutionaries and what made them tick. It makes you wonder how a book like 1776 (which I loved) can hardly mention privateers when there were thousands more people involved with those ships than with Washington's Continental Army.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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IotaPhi844
Posted March 12, 2010
Not so great
While the author explores a previously unexplored portion of the war for American Independence, this work is not so great. The timeline of the stories in the book are hard to follow, and can at times be confusing. Much of the last half of the book describes the goings ons and relationships of American Diplomats in France. While these people were involved with American Privateers, most of what is described has nothing to do with privateering. This is an interesting read, at least for the first half, but drags on and by then end you will be glad to be done with it.
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Anonymous
Posted July 23, 2011
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Anonymous
Posted December 28, 2009
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Anonymous
Posted October 16, 2009
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Anonymous
Posted July 1, 2011
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Anonymous
Posted May 12, 2010
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Anonymous
Posted December 29, 2010
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