As President Donald Trump continues to threaten retribution against trade partners who “aren’t playing fair,” in his new book our guest reminds us that America’s role in global trade is hardly innocent. Eric Jay Dolin’s Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates recounts the rogue sailors who terrorized the shipping routes in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, unnerving the superpowers of that time, and ultimately in some ways emblemized the brash new nation to come.
While the “Golden Age” of piracy was relatively confined in duration during the 17th and 18th centuries, it has an outsized influence on our collective imagination, spawning countless books, movies, theme park rides, and Halloween costumes to this very day. Eric Jay Dolin joins us from his home in Massachusetts.