This is about pirates, corsairs, and buccaneers mostly in the 17th and 18th centuries, with references to other pirates in other times and locales. The book does well to contrast the modern mostly-romantic imagery with the contemporary truths, and does so with authority and credibility.

However, I found the book a bit wanting. The style is OK, and the anecdotes are fine, but the material skips around and back, and I really didn't learn anywhere near as much as I expected and wanted to. (The organization of the book is a difficult problem; the material is a matrix yet must be presented linearly). I suppose some authors could have made the whole thing more dramatic, but Cordingly was explicitly trying to avoid the trap of overromanticizing the pirates. Also, Cordingly avoids getting us too sympathetic with characters who in fact deserve little sympathy.

So, I'm sympathetic with the author, and I think he's produced a worthwhile work, but that doesn't mean I'll be urging all my friends to read it. Now if you're after the facts, ma'am, this is for you.