Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Charles Mackay
Written in 1841, this book shows that misplaced groupthink has been around for ages. Among the subjects covered by this book are the tulip speculation craze of the 17th century, linguistic fads from 19th century England (including a varient of the currently-popular "Not" idiom), and other schemes, fads, and scams.
An enlightening glimpse into how human nature remains unchanged, for better or worse...
ISBN 051788433X
Crown
Order in Paperback(20% off list)
Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition
English Sea Rovers in the Seventeenth-Century Carribean
B. R. Berg
With all the bruhaha over Disney's revisions to their Pirates of The Carribean ride, this book reminds us that they never even got close to the *whole* story.
A history thesis dolled up with a lurid title -- the original title was something like Sodomy and the Perception of Evil -- this book can be a bit dry to read. Arid style aside, what it says is fascinating. The pirate subculture was overwhelmingly homosexual, a result of the demographics of Carribean slave-labor industries (while many slave women were imported, few women came to settle willingly in the Carribean, and they tended to be quickly betrothed to landowners), the obvious byproducts of an isolated population of men at sea, and remarkably enough, the recruitment tactics of the British Navy, who pressed young men into service from Oliver-Twist-like roving bands of urban beggars and theives.
This population of young men, cast out by their parents and unemployed, had so little contact with women of their class (who could easily find husbands or sell themselves into prostitution), that few of them had any heterosexual experience. The pirate population was mostly made up of Navy deserters from these ranks.
This information, then, puts an interesting spin on pirate lore in general. Public records from the Carribean show few records of crimes such as rape attributed to piracy. Many pirate crews took female hostages, but were more interested in the ransom; similarly, few of the most notorious of the pirate captains were interested in women, and those who did marry tended to have a lot of marital problems.
Read this book -- then rent "Captain Blood". You'll giggle yourself silly.