Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and Historys First Global Manhunt

Thoroughly engrossing . . . a spirited, suspenseful, economically told tale whose significance is manifest and whose pace never flags. The Wall Street JournalFrom The New York Timesbestselling author of The Ghost Map and Extra Life, the story of a pirate who changed the worldHenry Every was the seventeenth centurys most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popularand wildly inaccuratereports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Everys most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key eventthe attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crewand its surprising repercussions across time and space. Its the gripping tale of one of the most lucrative crimes in history, the first international manhunt, and the trial of the seventeenth century.Johnson uses the extraordinary story of Henry Every and his crimes to explore the emergence of the East India Company, the British Empire, and the modern global marketplace: a densely interconnected planet ruled by nations and corporations. How did this unlikely pirate and his notorious crime end up playing a key role in the birth of multinational capitalism? In the same mode as Johnsons classic nonfiction historical thriller The Ghost Map, Enemy of All Mankind deftly traces the path from a single struck match to a global conflagration.