Primary Sources:
The World Encompassed. Derek Wilson.
Account of Francis Drake's circumnavigation.
New Voyage Round the World. Dampier
Another early modern British circumnavigator. Yet in many ways Dampier's story is more interesting than Drake's. He started out as a quasi-outlaw privateer, but after the account of his first voyages were published, the British state took an interest in him. He was hired by the Royal Society to voyage further and document his findings for scientific purposes. (The state turned his outlaw looting and voyaging into systematic scientific knowledge!)
Secondary Sources
Armitage, David. The Ideological Origins of the British Empire
As I've already mentioned, I'm particularly interested in Armitage's chapter “The Empire of the Seas,” in which he gives a survey of the way maritime activity became important to the British in the way that they ruled their empire.
O'Hara, Glen. Britain and the Sea.
Chapter on Pirates is interesting and informative, but probably not substantial enough to engage with in essay.
Londes. The Tudor Navy.
I will definitely use this if I decide to go as far back as the Tudor period. Seems like a very smart and rigorous study of the formation of early-modern British navy. Focuses on policy rather than ships, naval technologies etc.
Hebb. Piracy and the English Government 1616-1642.
Focuses on the period right after Londes' book (Stuarts until the civil war). I will definitely read this whole book and use it in my essay. The distinction between piracy and “exploration”/ “privateering” is a merely legal distinction (one which only existed in the metropole?), and this is central to my topic. (Drake was a pirate!)
Beer. Sir Walter Raleigh and his Readers in the Seventeenth Century.
Hazlewood. The Queen's Slave Trader
Schmitt. Land and Sea.
This was written in the 20th century, but I am very eager to read it, as Carl Schmitt has been the most influential theorist of sovereignty in in recent years.
Mahan, A. T. The Influence of Sea Power upon History.
Fulton. Sovereignty of the Sea.
This was written in the 19th century, but it is a very thorough (800 pages!) study of the history of maritime law. Much of it is about fishing law, unfortunately.
Hey Vincent, while all your sources look great, I was particularly captivated by the Dampier account - I actually hope to use it as well! Even though our topics are different, we should definitely go over what we thought of his findings.
ReplyDeleteHi Vincent, Looks good! I guess one avenue you could go down is using the two primary sources to illustrate how British interests influenced their claims about maritime law (seems good for pulling in the Fulton and the Armitage). I mentioned a book two weeks ago that discusses Hugo Grotius's contribution to the notion that oceans belonged to everyone in a book called, "Natural Law: An Introduction to Legal Philosophy" by Alessander Passerin D'Entreves. Here's a link to it on Amazon in case you're interested (Stanford has a copy): http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Law-Introduction-Philosophy-Conservative/dp/1560006730/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1303364583&sr=1-1
ReplyDeleteSounds like you've got a lot of good options for secondary sources. I'm sure it'll be easier to get a more specific sense of what you're looking for in the secondary sources once you decide if you're going with the legal angle or something else!
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to contextualize your primary accounts within the legal codes of England during the time. The hebb source brings up the interesting debate if there really is a difference at the time between exploration and piracy and if so what was it?
ReplyDeleteMackenzie Tudor
Hey - cool sources! If you're interested in going further into the crossover from privateering into pirating, there's a really cool primary source you should definitely read - it's a transcription of the piracy trial of Captain William Kidd and his crew, and deals nearly exclusively with that issue for the whole trial. Fascinating, I read it last quarter for a class on Indian Ocean history, and I can send it to you if you want it.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds really interesting. I'm guessing you're working on early modern British piracy and privateering. I think you should focus on your time period and not get too caught up in the 19th and 20th centuries, though.
ReplyDelete