Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate

Angus Konstam's book on the life and times of Blackbeard the Pirate is well researched and well written. It reads smoothly and places Blackbeard into the historical context of the times in which he lived. Other reviewers have criticized Mr. Konstam for the amount of historical context he presents as he weaves his Blackbeard narrative but this approach is necessary not only for the paucity of actual historical information available on Blackbeard but also to break through the popular media stereotype of the man. For the casual reader, Mr. Knostam's book is the best I have read on the subject and he manages to walk the fine line between providing a good historical narrative and not falling into the trap of becoming immersed in historical detail. The footnoting convention Mr. Knostam uses is a little unusual in that in his desire not detract from the narrative, he makes looking up cited references a little more difficult but this complaint is more style than substance. Mr. Konstam's book is a wonderful companion to the more scholarly treatment of Blackbeard provided in Mr. Robert E. Lee's earlier work entitled "Blackbeard the Pirate, A Reappraisal of His Life and Times" and the two works together will give the reader a good understanding of just who was the historical Blackbeard and what was going on in his world to shape his actions. Recommend Mr. Knostam's book to anyone interested in this period of Colonial America's maritime history, it is an easy read and very informative.

First off I wanted to mention that I've tried researching as much as I can on Blackbeard (or Edward Teach/Thatch). This book was actually the last one I got into in my "travels" to the bookstores, library, and internet. Thankfully it also seems to be the best one of the bunch. I'll say that aside from reading books like Pirates! from the author I was not familiar with his writing at all. But after opening this book and beginning to read through it I was pleased that it wasn't going to be a dry historical reference. Most books based on history are very drawn out and boring. You often times get a lot of names, dates, and the addition of useless information pushed into one another and can get confused. This book has a decent narrative that slowly introduces new characters and then covers them fairly well. Now the biggest problem I had with this book is that it's so broad. The book is titled Blackbeard... but can often go pages without mentioning him. You end learning about Pirate history or the background of a particular ship before you get to the meat and potatoes of what Blackbeard had to do with what you're reading about. For someone wanting to learn more about the Pirate culture and history it was a treat for me. But, for the average reader who might want to know about Blackbeard specifically... this can mislead them. The second problem we're faced with (at no fault of the author) is the lack of information/resources. There really isn't a whole lot of information on the man (Teach). You have your sources like Captain Johnson (who we don't even know the background of), news articles (who let's face it... often embellish on facts to make their stories more interesting), and government documents (which can be edited as well). So when he began writing the story I imagine that the author was worried that he didn't have enough information. Which might be why there's plenty of "extra" fluff added in. In the end though, we're given a story that's both factual in nature (often citing multiple sources for a given statement) and fun to read. For anyone interested in learning about this man (Blackbeard) this is probably the best single resource. I only rated this book a 4/5 because of the fact that the average reader might not find all the extra information (not pertaining to Blackbeard) useful or even needed. But for someone interested in the culture/history as I am, you will certainly enjoy it.

Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate is a great book on Edward Teach, he certainly was the most fright-inducing pirate that ever lived... bar none! This is a great pirate book!

This is an outstanding book on Blackbeard.Follows his life from start as a privateer to his life as a pirate. A must for anyone interested in Blackbeard and the pirates who served with him.

This is a grand tale of Blackbeard and piracy in the Caribbean in the early 1700's. Working against limited and sometimes contradictory historical records, the author creates a great story and divines the truth of what actually happened in that period of time. Most of all, this is a well written book that encourages you to flip to the next page. The narration is crisp and paints a vivid picture of the times. The research is well done and draws the complete scene, understanding the main people, their motivating factors, and how they all collated to form history Why I take off one star: While this is a very good book, actually only about half the book is about Blackbeard himself. The book really doesn't start talking about Blackbeard as the main topic until about page one hundred (of 300 pages) There are really no swashbuckling tales of grand pirate fights, of trading canon blasts and boarding ships in epic swordfights. Most pirates were just actually gangs of thugs who used boats as their vehicles and canons as their means of intimidation. They scared and cowed their victims into submission, and were sensible enough to run when the force of authority came into view. The book is more about the business, conditions, and times of piracy, then of the individual pirates themselves and any great seafaring stories. Therefore, the real story is a lot less than the often romanticized tales of piracy. There's actually less interesting material to craft a story than one would expect. The most compelling moment in the book is near the end, when Blackbeard meets the might of her Majesties Royal Navy. Standing up to the fight, this is a Hollywood scene when Blackbeard engages his opponents in a ship vs. ship battle. The Navy plants a trap to egg Blackbeard into boarding one of her ships, and Blackbeard takes the bait. A blood thirsty battle then ensues as the weapons come out and the men going at it in a classic hand-to-hand fight. At the end, the deck is stained red from all of the blood, and Blackbeard's head is hanging from the mask!