Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700–1750

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea focuses upon the seamen's experience in order to illuminate larger historical issues.

Marcus Rediker (Author)

9780521303422, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 November 1987

340 pages, 17 b/w illus. 1 map 8 tables
23.5 x 16 x 3.1 cm, 0.635 kg

'Marcus Rediker's in-depth study of seamen in the early eighteenth century tells us a great deal not only about the shipping industry but also about the rise of capitalist relations in general in England, for which the industry may have been a more important forcing house than has previously been realised. No one interested in the history of the eighteenth century can afford to ignore this book.' Christopher Hill

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea focuses upon the seamen's experience in order to illuminate larger historical issues such as the rise of capitalism, the genesis of free wage labor, and the growth of an international working class. These epic themes were intimately bound up with the everyday hopes and fears of the common men who toiled upon the deep.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The seaman as man of the world: a tour of the North Atlantic, c. 1740
2. The seaman as collective worker: the labor process at sea
3. The seaman as wage laborer: the search for ready money
4. The seaman as plain dealer: language and culture at sea
5. The seaman as the 'spirit of rebellion': authority, violence, and labor discipline
6. The seaman as pirate: plunder and social banditry at sea
Conclusion: the seaman as worker of the world
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: Maritime history [HBTM]