ISBN13: | 9781802061567 |
ISBN10: | 1802061568 |
Binding: | Paperback |
No. of pages: | pages |
Size: | 196x126x18 mm |
Weight: | 160 g |
Language: | English |
783 |
The Enlightenment, Romanticism, The Realist Age
Cultural history
History of Africa
Further readings in History
The Enlightenment, Romanticism, The Realist Age
Modern and postmodern philosophy
Political systems and theories
Cultural anthropology
The Enlightenment, Romanticism, The Realist Age (charity campaign)
Cultural history (charity campaign)
History of Africa (charity campaign)
Further readings in History (charity campaign)
The Enlightenment, Romanticism, The Realist Age (charity campaign)
Modern and postmodern philosophy (charity campaign)
Political systems and theories (charity campaign)
Cultural anthropology (charity campaign)
Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia
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'A characteristically radical re-reading of history that places the social and political experiments of pirates at the heart of the European Enlightenment. A brilliant companion volume to the best-selling Dawn of Everything' Amitav Ghosh
The Enlightenment did not begin in Europe. Its true origins lie thousands of miles away on the island of Madagascar, in the late seventeenth century, when it was home to several thousand pirates. This was the Golden Age of Piracy - but it was also, argues anthropologist David Graeber, a brief window of radical democracy, as the pirate settlers attempted to apply the egalitarian principles of their ships to a new society on land.
In this jewel of a book, Graeber offers a way to 'decolonize the Enlightenment', demonstrating how this mixed community experimented with an alternative vision of human freedom, far from that being formulated in the salons and coffee houses of Europe. Its actors were Malagasy women, philosopher kings and escaped slaves, exploring ideas that were ultimately to be put into practice by Western revolutionary regimes a century later.
Pirate Enlightenment playfully dismantles the central myths of the Enlightenment. In their place comes a story about the magic, sea battles, purloined princesses, manhunts, make-believe kingdoms, fraudulent ambassadors, spies, jewel thieves, poisoners and devil worship that lie at the origins of modern freedom.