Pirates: Terror on the High Seas from the Caribbean to the South China Sea

Published by JG Press, 2004, hardcover, large format, illustrated, index, 256 pages, condition: new.

The popular image of pirates today-the combined effect of three centuries of books, plays, operas, films, cartoons, and children's games-is extraordinarily powerful.Pirates have become the mythical equivalent of giants, vampires, wizards, or witches, and they no longer seem quite real. Yet they definitely were real-as this first comprehensive, worldwide historical survey makes abundantly clear-and considerably more frightening historically than Long John Silver or Captain Hook. The barnacled sea dogs featured in this fascinating volume well deserved their reputations for bravery, hard drinking, avarica, foul language-and casual violence and cruelty.

I bought this book and have read it quite a bit since. As other reviews have stated it's a bit textbook-like in style but that's because the information is thoroughly sourced. Despite that the writing is far from dry and is well worth reading through because of how interesting the subject is.
You'll also find pictures of pirate related artifacts and old maps along with illustrations that show where our current romantic notion of piracy came from. If I ever lost my copy of this book I would go out and buy another because despite having read and reread it many times it's a lot of fun to read.