« Why aren't more people going to college? | Main | Hail Emily Oster! »
"As a child, Peter Leeson was pirate-obsessed."
That's the first sentence of the article, read more, from The Boston Globe.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on May 11, 2008 at 07:40 AM in History | Permalink
Comments
do you know when the book is coming out?
Posted by: Finja at May 11, 2008 8:14:57 AM
Gosh, was there any doubt?
I can't wait for his book. If you haven't read An-arrgh-chy yet, do so right now. Why? Because pirates are awesome.
Posted by: Daniel Reeves at May 11, 2008 11:26:13 AM
Finja: "It's currently under contract with Princeton University Press and, with any luck, will be out in 2009." -- His blog.
Speaking of his blog, keep reading it to keep track of his pirate papers if you're interested, both old and upcoming.
Posted by: Daniel Reeves at May 11, 2008 11:34:54 AM
That's because he couldn't see the Ninjas under the bed....
Posted by: David Zetland at May 11, 2008 6:08:06 PM
Interesting subject, but does anyone else feel that "pirate republics" are getting romanticized similar to "noble savages" and Jefferson's yeoman? I am note questioning the veracity of Leeson's (or any of the other Pirate academics') work, but how these societies are interpreted in the greater fabric of historical development.
Posted by: Publius at May 11, 2008 6:23:17 PM
Publius,
Good question. Your concern is an increasingly common one to hear. Defending why we should applaud pirates would take far more space than is reasonable here. But in the book I argue that the "we praise pirates too much" criticism is the reverse of what it should be. If anything, we tend to under-appreciate pirates rather than over-appreciating them, even though they were violent criminals. Pirates deserve more of our praise, not less. I devote significant space to defending this claim in the book, which I'll leave undefended here. But wait for the book . . .
David,
The economics of ninjas happens to be a current project I'm working on . . . No, I'm not kidding.
Posted by: Peter T. Leeson at May 11, 2008 6:55:49 PM
"As a child, Peter Leeson was pirate-obsessed."
Wait, isn't he still? ;)
Posted by: liberty at May 11, 2008 8:07:07 PM
In addition to the above comments, I just want to add that Leeson's paper on "trading with bandits" (journal of legal studies, may 2007) is just awesome, so I'm happy he is receiving wider exposure now
Posted by: enrique at May 11, 2008 8:41:40 PM
Whether or not this contributes to serious scholarship, I can only thank Prof. Leeson for writing a book with such a fantastic title (and subject matter).
Posted by: d.cous. at May 12, 2008 9:44:34 AM
An interesting thesis. Checking it against what happens in current pirate societies - groups which have no family memories of the Emglish Civil War - looks like the sort of research which really takes up the rest of your life.
Posted by: David Heigham at May 12, 2008 4:11:02 PM
