Black Flags, Blue Waters

The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates

De: Eric Jay Dolin

Narrado por: Paul Brion

Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, Black Flags, Blue Waters reveals the dramatic and surprising history of American piracy's "Golden Age" - spanning the late 1600s through the early 1700s - when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and beyond. Best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them.

Through engrossing episodes of roguish glamour and extreme brutality, Dolin depicts the star pirates of this period, among them towering Blackbeard, ill-fated Captain Kidd, and sadistic Edward Low, who delighted in torturing his prey. Also brilliantly detailed are the pirates' manifold enemies, including colonial governor John Winthrop and evangelist Cotton Mather.

Upending popular misconceptions and cartoonish stereotypes, Dolin provides this wholly original account of the seafaring outlaws whose raids reflect the precarious nature of American colonial life.

©2018 Eric Jay Dolin (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Solid read, BUT...

If this is your first foray into the history of pirates, I heartily recommend listening to The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard first. It's a much more engaging read, and the narrator does a MUCH better job (I swear, this narrator almost managed to make PIRATES seem boring with his delivery). After you read that book, if you're still hungry for more, than this volume is a respectable one for supplementing your knowledge. The author does present interesting history that The Republic of Pirates glossed over, including a few interesting figures left out of that other book entirely. This book just has a slightly narrower focus that I think makes it less suitable as a first book on the subject. By all means read and enjoy it (narrator aside, I certainly did), just not as your first sojourn into the subject matter.

excellent!

the accounts of the golden age of piracy is astounding! the accounts of Bellamy, Blackbeard, Bonnet, and more are fascinating and capture the imagination at its fullest on the high seas of the Caribbean, Coast of Massachusetts, Virginia, the Carolinas, and so on. absolutely loved this book so much that I bought the actual book as well!

Great book, lot of stories

The only complaint I have is that the voice actor is a bit monotone, but still not bad. This book is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in pirate history. I ordered the print edition as well-the reviews suggest it has a lot of maps and graphics.

Educational

I liked the scope of the book but I had to endure the narrator. While some describe him as monotonous, it seemed that he was more infatuated with his voice than the narrative. As a music major, I kept sensing a repetitious pattern of rising and particularly notable falling at end of a sentence that all became tedious. I'm reminded of the La Divina, Maria Callas who always said the voice should convey the meaning of the music. I would say the narrator should consider the work read than be enthralled with his lovely voice.

interesting pirate book

well written pirate history, doesn'tdrone on. . good narration. pleasant voice. really enjoyed this audio book.

The Narrator Puts Me to Sleep

I have started to pay attention to who is doing the narration of books simply. excuse of this narrator. I prefer to go with books that are "as read by the author" because they obviously have a love and passion for what they are writing about and you can feel the energy. Not all authors are great narrators, but they still carry the passion for subject matter.

I choose my audio books because of the topic, and then the description. I sometimes listen to the samples, but for the most part they are useless because they are generally introductions or prefaced that don't get into the meat of the subject. I should have listened to this one becsuse I cringed as soon as the narration started. i have several books narrated by this person, but i have never gotten through the first chapter before uninstalling them. Books like this one, while potentially being dthought provoking and entertaining, are presented in the same way that a professor who has presented the topic too many times and is just trying to get to the end of the semester. The speaker must be good to someone, because there are numerous books to his credit, but I can tell how many times I've started to listen to him because of the number of titles hes read that show "Started: xx hours yy minutes remaining." It's sad because the only way to know if the material is what I hoped is to read a paper copy.

Informative and entertaining.

It was cool to envision the deeds of the most famous pirates that captured imagination. It was also neat to hear about the impact pirates had on early colonial life. If you like pirates and history things a must read!

Golden-Age Piracy from an American perspective

This book attempts to look at at golden-age piracy through the lens of how it affected the American colonies. That is an interesting perspective, and it does have some unique information that I haven't encountered in other books.

I would say that the book partially succeeds. However, since it is difficult to tell that story without also giving the background information of piracy in the West Indies, about two thirds (just a rough estimate) of the content of the book is also covered in "The Republic of Pirates" by Colin Woodard, which, in my humble opinion, did a better job of it.

There is still a decent amount of interesting information in the book. Some of the stories relayed are different than other versions I have heard, and for some strange reason, I like hearing alternate reports. Perhaps the mystery is what makes this era in history so interesting to me.

Overall, although I occasionally got tired of hearing redundant information, I am glad I picked up this book.

Author & Story are great, Narrator is ultra dull

Author & Story are great, Narrator is ultra dull

The writing and story are super interesting, however the dull, monotone, narration by Paul Brion dulls down the rich content. He shows not appreciation for the exciting stories with his flat delivery. I almost returned it because of that but decided to keep it since the stories/history are truly interesting

History by eye witness's, journals, and court case

The book has is more of a tutorial on the many pirates of the Caribbean and Indian Oceans. Some of the worst one's like Black Beard, psychopath Edward "Ned" Low, and a real life Robinson Crusoe castaway Philip Ashton. If you want to know the hard short lives of pirates start here.