Chance and the Pirate!

 Johnson, Steven.  Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First 

          Global Manhunt.  New York: Riverhead Books, 2020.  ISBN: 9780735211605

Pirates!  Who does not like to read about pirates?  Tales of swashbuckling adventures, cutlasses gleaming, and treasure to be plundered!  In Enemy of All Mankind, Steven Johnson provides a look at Henry Every, one of the most successful pirates ever, who manages to loot a great treasure and escape into obscurity, never to be caught!

Enemy of All Mankind opens with the crime.  Three small English ships under the command of Henry Every come upon a Mughal treasure ship in the Indian Ocean.  Against all odds, the English succeed in taking and plundering the Mughal vessel. Little is known for sure about Henry Every, so Steven Johnson uses all the craft of a writer to bring him to life while providing context for his life, his crime, and the impact this crime had on the world.  Johnson breaks the story into five parts - The Expedition, The Mutiny, The Heist, The Chase, and The Trial.  "The Expedition" sets the scene with background on Henry Every, terrorism, piracy, the Mughals, the East India Company, and the Spanish Expedition Shipping enterprise which hired Henry Every.  "The Mutiny" covers the mutiny Henry Every lead that provided him a ship The Fancy along with a look at the pirate haven of Madagascar and their future opponent the Ganj-i-Sawai.  "The Heist" walks the reader through the details of the fight to take the Ganj-i-Sawai, the conflicting narratives of what happened after the English victory and the consequences of this act on the fortunes of the East India Company in India and Great Britain.  "The Chase" details The Fancy's travels from the Indian Ocean around Cape Horn and into the Caribbean where the pirate crew split up with some staying, some going on to the colonies in America while Henry Every and several others travel back to England.  "The Trial" looks at the fate of 8 crew members who where caught in England, put on trial, and then put on trial again because the jury had the nerve to side with the defendants in the first trial.

Steven Johnson provides a very readable account of the crimes committed by the pirate Henry Every, placing events in the context of British imperialism in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.  If the reader wants to explore the early history of pirates, Enemy of All Mankind  is a great place to start.

Cracking the Cases!

McOmie, Dave.  Safecracker: A Chronicle of the Coolest Job in the World.  Guilford, CN: Lyons 

            Press, 2021.  ISBN: 9781493058518

What did you want to be when you grew up?  Firefighter?  Cowboy?  Indian chief?  Or maybe a chef or a sports star?  But did you know that you could be a professional safecracker?  Well, that is what Dave McOmie became and this is his story!

Dave McOmie tells the story of his career over the course of a week.  Starting with a flight to Vegas on Monday to open a major bank's private currency center because the bankers has overwound the timelock.  And it needed to be done by midnight!  While taking the reader along on this thrill ride, Dave reveals how he got into this business.  Tuesday involved opening an ATM at a theater in full view of the public plus a discussion of professional ethics and the challenge of opening safes.  Wednesday involves a chartered flight to open two gun safes for a widow and the Department of Defense followed a return home for supper.  During the course of the day, he gets a couple of jobs for Thursday and a job for Sunday while discussing the merits of various gun safes.  Thursday involves opening the Portland Air National Guard armory vault with an interesting side-bit on government procurement in regard to safes and vaults.  Friday comes with a fully automatic bank vault to open in Salt Lake City with the need to return home for a daughter's dance recital.   Unlike Vegas, he has plenty of drill bits this time!  Saturday has Dave spending time at home and reminiscing about old jobs, the journal he writes,and the Penetration Parties he hosts.  Sunday involves a flight to Paisley Park, Minnesota to open a Mosler vault after the owner has died.  This opening has a big crowd of lawyers, bankers, and an archivist as well as DEA agents.  And of course this opening would be filmed.  Dave manages to get the safe open in the end only to have a smaller safe he needed to open inside the vault.  

When a reader cracks open a biography, you can never be sure what you will find in side.  In Safecracker, the reader gets a glimpse into a job most people will never experience in a lively, entertaining read!

When Did Globalization Start?

 Hansen, Valerie.  The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World - and Globalization 

           Began.  New York: Scribner, 2020.  ISBN: 9781501194108

When you think of the year 1000 of the common era (whether you think CE or AD is up to you), what pops up in your mind?  Is it Vikings sailing west?  Cathedrals being built in France?  Trade in China?  For Valerie Hansen, she thought is connections, specifically trade, global trade!  In The Year 1000, Valerie Hansen takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the world beginning around year 1000 of the common era and up until about 1450.  She chose the year 1000 since that is around when the Vikings stopped by North America and trade could theoretically be made around the world - from Asia to America and back again.  

Valarie Hansen opens The Year 1000 with an overview of the world, briefly discussing Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas along with her argument for globalization beginning in 1000.  She then proceeds to discuss the Viking voyages to Newfoundland and elsewhere in the Americas and the impact this had on trade.  The third chapter of the book covers the trade routes that existed in the Americas among the local groups.  Hansen then returns to the Vikings, but in Europe this time with their search for slaves and treasure in the east, especial among the Rus while also covering trade on the continent and with outside countries.  The reader then travels south to Africa with its slave trade, its trade in gold, and in other commodities.   From Africa, the reader travels to Central Asia with the Silk Road that connected Europe and Africa with the Far East.  Religion and trade played a major role in Central Asia economies.  Next, Hansen explores the sea routes from the Middle East and Africa to India, then Indonesia,and ending at China.  In the last chapter, Hansen explores Chain and the role it played in global trade during this whole time frame.  

Throughout The Year 1000, Valarie Hansen seeks to persuade the reader that globalization started much earlier than the 1500's - the time when most scholars agree global trade began.  She provides ample evidence that trade, extensive trade was happening 500 years earlier.  Whether the reader agrees whit her argument or not,  The Year 1000 is an interesting and informative read.