A global approach to better understanding piracy through archaeology Featuring discussions of newly discovered evidence from South America, England, New England, Haiti, the Virgin Islands, the Caribbean Sea, and the Indian Ocean, Dead Man's Chest presents diverse approaches to better understanding piracy through archaeological investigations, landscape studies, material culture analyses, and documentary and cartographic evidence. The case studies in this volume include medieval and post-medieval piracy in the Bristol Channel, illicit trade in seventeenth-century fishing stations in Maine, and the guerrilla tactics of nineteenth-century privateers and coastal bandits off the Gulf of Mexico Coast. Contributors reveal the story of a Dutch privateer who saved a ship from a storm only to take control of it, partnerships between pirates and Indigenous inhabitants along the Miskito coast, and new findings on the Speaker--one of the first pirate ships to be archaeologically investigated--in Madagascar. As well as covering shipwrecks and other topics traditionally associated with piracy, several chapters look at pirate facilities on land and cultural interactions with nearby communities as reflected through archival documentation. As a whole, the volume highlights various ways to identify piracy and smuggling in the archaeological record, while encouraging readers to question what they think they know about pirates. Contributors: Dr. Charles R. Ewen | Russell K. Skowronek | Yann von Arnim | Martijn van den Bel | Patrick J. Boyle | John de Bry | Alexandre Coulaud | Jessie Cragg | Lynn B. Harris | Geraldo J. S. Hostin | Coy Jacob Idol | Kimberly P. Kenyon | Patrick Lizé | Laurent Pavlidis| Jason T. Raupp | Bradley Rodgers | Nathalie Sellier-Ségard | Jean Soulat | Katherine D. Thomas | Michael Thomin | Megan Rhodes Victor | Kenneth S. Wild

Real-life accounts of the world’s most notorious pirates—both men and women, from the sixteenth century through the Golden Age of Piracy to the late nineteenth century—compiled by the New York Times bestselling author of A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself. A Penguin Classic Behind the eye patches and the peg legs and the skull and crossbones of the Jolly Roger flag are deeper truths about pirates that are just as fascinating. The no-man’s-land of piracy is rife with paradox and plot twists, like how astoundingly egalitarian multi-ethnic and multilingual crews became enmeshed in historical horrors like the slave trade, how an Englishman once converted to Islam before terrorizing the North African coast, and how women disguised themselves as men to raid the Caribbean. Spanning three centuries and eight thousand nautical miles, and compiled by a direct descendant of a sailor who waged war with pirates in the early nineteenth century, The Penguin Book of Pirates features trial transcripts, journalism, ship logs, and more, capturing the grit and patois of real maritime marauders like the infamous Blackbeard; the pirates who inspired Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean , Stede Bonnet in HBO Max’s Our Flag Means Death , and the Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride ; and lesser-known but no less formidable women pirates. By turns brutal, harrowing, and inspiring, these accounts of the “radically free” sailors who were citizens more of the oceangoing world than of any nation remind us of the glories and dangers of the open seas and the seductive appeal of communities forged in resistance.

A sociological investigation into maritime state power told through an exploration of how the British Empire policed piracy. Early in the seventeenth-century boom of seafaring, piracy allowed many enterprising and lawless men to make fortunes on the high seas, due in no small part to the lack of policing by the British crown. But as the British empire grew from being a collection of far-flung territories into a consolidated economic and political enterprise dependent on long-distance trade, pirates increasingly became a destabilizing threat. This development is traced by sociologist Matthew Norton in The Punishment of Pirates, taking the reader on an exciting journey through the shifting legal status of pirates in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Norton shows us that eliminating this threat required an institutional shift: first identifying and defining piracy, and then brutally policing it. The Punishment of Pirates develops a new framework for understanding the cultural mechanisms involved in dividing, classifying, and constructing institutional order by tracing the transformation of piracy from a situation of cultivated ambiguity to a criminal category with violently patrolled boundaries—ending with its eradication as a systemic threat to trade in the English Empire. Replete with gun battles, executions, jailbreaks, and courtroom dramas, Norton’s book offers insights for social theorists, political scientists, and historians alike.

The Sons of Neptune: Tracing the Archetype of the Erotic Sailor explores the evolving image of the sailor as both cultural icon and erotic figure—one that has remained curiously omnipresent and yet critically underexamined in maritime literature and popular culture. By the nineteenth century, the sailor had been cast as both working-class hero and romantic rogue—a masculine ideal that embodied loyalty, rebellion, and desire in equal measure. In the twentieth century, this figure increasingly appeared in erotic literature and visual culture, solidifying his place in the imagination as a symbol of fluidity, subversion, and sexual transgression. Author Jessica M. Floyd traces this archetype from the eighteenth century through the post-Stonewall era, revealing how the sailor became a canvas for fantasies of gender and sexual ambiguity. At the heart of the book lies a deep interrogation of cultural desire—a fascination with the sailor’s paradoxical role as both agent and object, stable figure and shapeshifter. Navigating the complex waters of masculinity, queerness, and iconography, The Sons of Neptune brings into focus a ubiquitous yet understudied figure whose legacy still ripples through literature, art, and cultural history.

An Ana and Din Mystery Brilliant detective Ana Dolabra must prove a man's innocence to stop a civil war in the third book of the series that began with The Tainted Cup, named an Edgar, Hugo, and World Fantasy Award Finalist and one of the best books of the year (New York Times Book Review, NPR, Elle)—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy. In the canton of Sapirdad, two of the Empire’s most powerful families are moments away from going to war with each other, their hundreds of retainers gathered with swords drawn. If blood is spilt, the whole of the empire may be plunged into starvation and chaos. To de-escalate matters, someone must do the impossible: prove that one family’s eldest son is innocent of a gruesome and unforgivable murder, despite the incontrovertible evidence against him. It is with this undertaking that the great detective Ana Dolabra is tasked, her assistant Din at her side—and the two find themselves racing with great speed and little dignity to the scene. As ever, the impossible proves little obstacle for the deadly combination of Ana’s intellect and Din’s keen eye, and mere hours after riding into the dusty town, Ana glimpses the greater pattern behind the crime. A deeper, subtler web of death is being woven in plain sight, by a mastermind with an ancient magical technology at his disposal. But even Ana's uncanny insight is of little use when each new suspect she uncovers ends up dead--with each new killing calculated to bring tensions between the two rival clans past the boiling point. And as Din pursues their adversary through the canton's wild ranges, sprawling ranches, and reeking slaughterhouses, he finds his loyalties divided in unexpected ways.

The untold story of a heroic band of Caribbean pirates whose defiance of imperial rule inspired revolt in colonial outposts across the world. In the early eighteenth century, the Pirate Republic was home to some of the great pirate captains, including Blackbeard, "Black Sam" Bellamy, and Charles Vane. Along with their fellow pirates—former sailors, indentured servants, and runaway slaves—this "Flying Gang" established a crude but distinctive democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which servants were free, blacks could be equal citizens, and leaders were chosen or deposed by a vote. They cut off trade routes, sacked slave ships, and severed Europe from its New World empires, and for a brief, glorious period the Republic was a success.

The untold story of a heroic band of Caribbean pirates whose defiance of imperial rule inspired revolt in colonial outposts across the world. In the early eighteenth century, the Pirate Republic was home to some of the great pirate captains, including Blackbeard, "Black Sam" Bellamy, and Charles Vane. Along with their fellow pirates—former sailors, indentured servants, and runaway slaves—this "Flying Gang" established a crude but distinctive democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which servants were free, blacks could be equal citizens, and leaders were chosen or deposed by a vote. They cut off trade routes, sacked slave ships, and severed Europe from its New World empires, and for a brief, glorious period the Republic was a success.

Too many popular histories seek to establish heroes, pioneers and martyrs but as Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue, the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and dastardly deeds have been overlooked. We all remember Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for Bosie? What about those ‘bad gays’ whose unexemplary lives reveals more than we might expect? Part revisionist history, part historical biography and based on the hugely popular podcast series, Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies. From the Emperor Hadrian to notorious gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors excavate the buried history of queer lives. This includes fascist thugs, famous artists, austere puritans and debauched bon viveurs, imperialists, G-men and architects. Together these amazing life stories expand and challenge the mainstream assumptions of sexual identity. They show that homosexuality itself was an idea that emerged in the nineteenth century and that its interpretation has been central to major historical moments of conflict from the ruptures of Weimar Republic to red-baiting in Cold War America. Amusing, disturbing and fascinating, Bad Gays puts centre stage the queer villains and evil twinks in history.

New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher returns to the cozy fantasy world of Swordheart in this deliciously charming sequel. Four hundred years ago, three warriors were trapped inside enchanted swords, cursed to be immortal servants of whoever wielded the blade. One of them is the Dervish, a restless, fiery soul who hates his captivity and hates his wielders even more, but has never found a way to escape the sword’s magic. Then one day, a disillusioned scholar named Learned Edmund is tasked with delivering the sword to a distant city, and, in the greatest of peril, draws the blade. The Dervish finds himself bound to a sweet, brilliant, and above all kind young man. And while he may be able to protect Edmund from bandits, cultists, dragons, and strange inhuman diplomats, he may find it much harder to protect his own heart.

New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher returns to the cozy fantasy world of Swordheart in this deliciously charming sequel. Four hundred years ago, three warriors were trapped inside enchanted swords, cursed to be immortal servants of whoever wielded the blade. One of them is the Dervish, a restless, fiery soul who hates his captivity and hates his wielders even more, but has never found a way to escape the sword’s magic. Then one day, a disillusioned scholar named Learned Edmund is tasked with delivering the sword to a distant city, and, in the greatest of peril, draws the blade. The Dervish finds himself bound to a sweet, brilliant, and above all kind young man. And while he may be able to protect Edmund from bandits, cultists, dragons, and strange inhuman diplomats, he may find it much harder to protect his own heart.

One final adventure for Ropa Moyo – orphan, mischief-maker and failed magician. Secrets of the First School is the mystery-filled finale to T. L. Huchu’s enchanting Edinburgh Nights series.‘I’ve had my arse kicked more times than I can count’Ropa Moyo is dead, banished to the Other Place by the reanimated spirit of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville of Scotland. Turns out being on the losing side sucks worse than being skint.Now, the Cult of Dundas intends to ascend to godhood, spreading their corrupting reach from Edinburgh to all of Scotland’s schools of magic. Ropa must find some way to escape the Other Place, save her sister and gather allies across the country before Edinburgh falls.A royal plot, a family secret and a stolen body. As Scotland descends into petty in-fighting, Ropa’s only hope lies in her grandmother’s final the first school of magic.An ancient power is returning . . . and is hungry for revenge.* * *Praise for the Edinburgh Nights ‘Fast-moving and entertaining . . . Stupendously engaging’– Ben Aaronovitch, author of the Rivers of London series‘I am such a fan of T. L. Huchu and this series – I recommend it to everyone I meet’– Olivie Blake, author of The Atlas Six‘I highly recommend The Library of the Dead’– Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse series