The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates
Product ID: 183979235
Pack your cutlass and blunderbuss--it's time to go a-pirating! The Invisible Hook takes readers inside the wily world of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century pirates. With swashbuckling irreverence and devilish wit, Peter Leeson uncovers the hidden economics behind pirates' notorious, entertaining, and sometimes downright shocking behavior. Why did pirates fly flags of Skull & Bones? Why did they create a "pirate code"? Were pirates really ferocious madmen? And what made them so successful? The Invisible Hook uses economics to examine these and other infamous aspects of piracy. Leeson argues that the pirate customs we know and love resulted from pirates responding rationally to prevailing economic conditions in the pursuit of profits. The Invisible Hook looks at legendary pirate captains like Blackbeard, Black Bart Roberts, and Calico Jack Rackam, and shows how pirates' search for plunder led them to pioneer remarkable and forward-thinking practices. Pirates understood the advantages of constitutional democracy--a model they adopted more than fifty years before the United States did so. Pirates also initiated an early system of workers' compensation, regulated drinking and smoking, and in some cases practiced racial tolerance and equality. Leeson contends that pirates exemplified the virtues of vice--their self-seeking interests generated socially desirable effects and their greedy criminality secured social order. Pirates proved that anarchy could be organized. Revealing the democratic and economic forces propelling history's most colorful criminals, The Invisible Hook establishes pirates' trailblazing relevance to the contemporary world.
| Dimensions | 12.7 x 1.27 x 20.32 cm |
| Edition | Illustrated |
| Generic Name | Book |
| Importer | Penguin Random House India Pvt Ltd |
| Isbn 10 | 0691150095 |
| Isbn 13 | 978-0691150093 |
| Item Weight | 312 g |
| Language | English |
| Packer | Penguin Random House India Pvt Ltd |
| Print Length | 288 pages |
| Publication Date | 25 July 2011 |
| Publisher | Princeton University Press |
User
Very Interesting!
It exceeded my expectations by far.A lot of the things we believe about the pirates in the seventeenth and eighteenth century are more fiction than fact. Pirates being a bunch of crazy, violent thugs? Yeah well they are thugs for sure, but it turns out that pirates really tried hard to avoid having to use violence to get what they wanted.This book not only explain a lot about how the pirate ship pretty much functioned like a firm, for example by building a pirate brand: a reputation of being brutal and crazy. It also explain why it was on these pirate ships that we see the earliest examples of democratic rulings being established, with sophisticated institutions of governance and separations of power.
User
Fantástico
Leeson reúne aquí varios de sus ensayos sobre la organización de los piratas en el siglo XVII con la idea común que la búsqueda del beneficio privado condujo a resultados sociales deseables en un entorno de auto-regulación, fuera de la ley. Muy bien documentado, destaca sobre todo por la coherencia y originalidad de sus ideas. Fantástico.
User
Interesting and thought-provoking, if a little thin
Some fascinating insights into how societies build their rules & behaviours. It does feel like it's been stretched out to fill a book and towards the end it gets a bit preachy about how greed is good rather than letting the evidence speak for itself.
User
Fast efficient delivery
Item received in good condition
User
Eines meiner Lieblingsbücher
Dieses Buch ist höchst originell. Es betrachtet ein historisches Phänomen - nämlich das der Piraten um 1790 - aus einem völlig anderen Blickwinkel.Es zeigt exemplarisch wie sich ökonomische Prinzipen und Demokratie einander bedingen.Ein ideales Buch für Neu-, Quer- und Andersdenker... und ein optisch wunderschön gemachtes Buch noch dazu.
User
Piratical primer on economics and democracy
A fresh look at the economics of piracy... how do economic and democratic ideas express themselves in an extra-legal environment?
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