I enjoyed this book a lot. An interesting story about how one dramatic heist changed global law and economics. ( )

Steven Johnson's "Enemy of All Mankind" is centered on the infamous Henry Every (also known as Henry Avery), a late 17th Century English pirate. Every's pirate career was short lived, lasting about two years, starting after leading a mutiny on a sleek and well-armed British privateer, the Charles II. After taking over the ship, he renamed it the Fancy, and then sailing the ship to the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea to attack ships in the rich trade of India. With some luck, he managed to take one very rich prize, a large, well-armed ship of the grand Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

Every's successful attack on the Mughal treasure ship in itself was a shock. Outgunned and outmanned, the Fancy was able to take the Indian vessel, the Gunsway, by a stroke of good luck. First of all, one of the cannons on the Indian ship exploded when firing on the pirate ship, killing the gun crew and others around it, At the same time, one of the cannonballs from the Fancy made a direct strike at the base of the mainmast on the Gunsway, dropping the mast, sails, and rigging, causing chaos aboard her. Every's men were able to scramble aboard and take control of the vessel. The ship was a pirate's dream, holding riches amounting to what would be equivalent to many tens of millions of dollars today. The ship also was carrying members of the royal family, many of whom were killed and many of the women abused, leading to a world-wide search for Every and his men.

With the crew of the Fancy wanted internationally for their brutal treatment of those aboard the Gunsway, and Every labeled as an "enemy of all mankind", they made a wise decision and traded the ship to the governor of a Caribbean island in return for safe haven. Some of the men stayed, others sailed back to England on other vessels, hoping to bribe their way in and blend in with their riches. Only a handful were ever caught and tried by the authorities, ultimately being hanged for their crimes.

Every and a handful of his men purchased a small vessel, sailed it across the Atlantic to Ireland, and Every apparently managed to retire with his ill-gotten gains. There is little documentation about the rest of Every's life, only conjecture, but he basically disappeared after his great theft and was never heard of again.

This isn't a typical swashbuckler book, with dramatic battle stories, ships maneuvering for punishing broadsides, descriptions of hand to hand combat with cutlass and pistols, etc. Much of the book explores, with some conjecture, what it was like to be a pirate with Henry Every, describing the long periods of boredom aboard a pirate ship, how the ships were outfitted and prepared , etc.

What makes Every's story of interest was it's impact on British - India relations and a subsequent strengthening of the British East India Company. This was the lead-up to the British ultimately taking control of the Indian sub-continent. ( )

This is the first book I've read by Steven Johnson and I'm not sure if I care for his style. He genuinely tries to incorporate a lot of information and spells out how events that took place over 300 years ago still have ramification for how the world functions today. I understand too the need to try to set the tone for the environment of the late 17th century, it just doesn't flow. He jumps all over the place and it is just a little too abrupt, one page your with the pirates, next page you one to the Grand Mughal and then you off to one of the clerks of the East India Company. All very interesting information, but just not presented very well. ( )

Reminiscent of format television, frantically scuttling from scene to scene in a desperate attempt to obscure the dearth of actual content.
Words, words, words, so many words. ( )

The central narrative of this book – the story of the man who may have been called Henry Every, and who in 1694 carried out an act of piracy against a treasure ship of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb - hangs on a very slender historical thread; which is why the author has had to pad it out with a great deal of collateral history. For all that it is a bit of a potpourri, the story is told in good potboiler fashion, and the author’s excursions into the history of the Mughals, piracy in general, the invention of the joint stock company, and other topics vaguely connected to the central story, do sustain the reader’s interest.

All that is known for sure about Every is that he led a mutiny, making off with a fast merchantman, of which he was first mate, in the harbor of La Coruna Spain, and then attacking and plundering the treasure ship in the Indian Ocean. Nothing certain is known about about his origins or early years, and the last sighting of him was in the Bahamas a few months after the attack, where he dumped the stolen ship and eventually made his way back - presumably to the British Isles. Because the treasure ship was carrying some high-ranking members of the the Mughal court – possibly including a granddaughter of the emperor – back from a pilgrimage to Mecca, and as the pirates were known to be English, the emperor took reprisals against the British East India Company. The Company had not yet reached that later stage in which it became the effective ruler of the subcontinent; at this point, its operations were still at the pleasure of the Mughal emperor. The owners and board members in London were sufficiently alarmed at its possible expulsion from India – which, as the author points out, would have changed the whole later course of Indian history – that they convinced the government to make the capture and punishment of Every and his crew official British government policy. Five members of Every’s crew were subsequently arrested in England and hanged following a show trial at the Old Bailey; Every himself was never found or punished, and became a subject of many legendary stories and popular ballads throughout the 18th century.

Although the author seems to have a good grasp of the early modern period, his knowledge of earlier periods is far less certain. It may seem like a quibble, but his chapter locating the origins of piracy in the so-called Sea Peoples of the Late Bronze Age is very misleading. The Sea Peoples were not, as the author presents them, prototype pirates “living an entirely nautical existence”. They were only known as Sea People because, to the Egyptians and other people of the Levant who recorded their unwelcome arrival, they came from the Sea. The “prevailing theory” is not that they were a collection of refugees from Mycenean Greece; it is considered much more likely that, although there were clearly cultural connections to Mycene, they came from much farther east, the Aegean area and mainland Asian Minor. The most well-known element among the Sea People, the Philistines - whose name is still perpetuated in the country once known as Palestine - readily abandoned their boats to settle down in the fertile coastal plain of the the southern Levant. Even the idea of piracy, in an age when there was no concept of territorial sovereignty – let alone a “Law of the Sea” - and when people routinely took whatever they could by force, is anachronistic. One could also mention his assertion that “the last vestiges of the Roman Empire were toppled by AD 650”, ignoring its survival as Byzantium for a further 800 years. Or, in discussing the origins of Islam and the Haj, the “seven thousand years” since Abraham had divine vision. But I won’t.

It’s a good read; the author provides very vivid descriptions of life at sea in the 17th century, and of pirate society. He probably exaggerates the historical significance of the central event. But who cares? ( )