Mark G. Hanna, “Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570 to 1740” (UNC Press, 2015)

UNC Press Presents Podcast · Feb 19, 2018 · 55m

Mark G. Hanna offers a unique perspective on the roles played by piracy in the formation of the British colonial project. In Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570 to 1740 (University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2015), Hanna weaves a fascinating tale from legal and commercial sources to illustrate ways that the English government often tolerated, and at times encouraged predation on the high seas. The goods obtained in these thinly disguised robberies not only helped prime the economic pump of the England’s North…