Enemy of All Mankind
A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt
Penguin Publishing Group · Print & ebook · May 11, 2021
“Thoroughly engrossing . . . a spirited, suspenseful, economically told tale whose significance is manifest and whose pace never flags.” —The Wall Street Journal From The New York Times–bestselling author of The Ghost Map and Extra Life, the story of a pirate who changed the world Henry Every was the seventeenth century’s most notorious pirate.
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- Who it’s for
- A brisk historical narrative that moves like a pursuit and reads cleanly in one long stretch.
- Genres
- Maritime History & Piracy, 17th-Century History, Historical True Crime
- Published
- Penguin Publishing Group, May 11, 2021
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“Thoroughly engrossing . . . a spirited, suspenseful, economically told tale whose significance is manifest and whose pace never flags.” —The Wall Street Journal From The New York Times–bestselling author of The Ghost Map and Extra Life, the story of a pirate who changed the world Henry Every was the seventeenth century’s most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular—and wildly inaccurate—reports of his nefarious adventures.
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The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every’s most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event—the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew—and its surprising repercussions across time and space. It’s the gripping tale of one of the most lucrative crimes in history, the first international manhunt, and the trial of the seventeenth century. Johnson uses the extraordinary story of Henry Every and his crimes to explore the emergence of the East India Company, the British Empire, and the modern global marketplace: a densely interconnected planet ruled by nations and corporations. How did this unlikely pirate and his notorious crime end up playing a key role in the birth of multinational capitalism? In the same mode as Johnson’s classic nonfiction historical thriller The Ghost Map, Enemy of All Mankind deftly traces the path from a single struck match to a global conflagration.
A Global Chase
A brisk historical narrative that moves like a pursuit and reads cleanly in one long stretch.
Come here for
- piracy, power, and a globe-spanning chase
- history with a true-crime pulse
Expect
- seventeenth-century maritime intrigue
- Steven Johnson’s lucid, fast-moving storytelling
Where it sits
| Maritime History & Piracy | 91% |
|---|---|
| Historical True Crime | 50% |
| 17th-Century History | 35% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Maritime History & Piracy
- Globalization
- Geopolitics
- Authors
- Steven Johnson
- Publisher
- Penguin Publishing Group
- Published
- May 11, 2021
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Maritime History & Piracy