Persistent Piracy ― Maritime Violence and State Formation in Global Historical Perspective

Warfare and legitimate violence have long been seen as key elements in state formation. Persistent Piracy brings into the picture the long missing component of maritime violence – and shows it to be of vital importance to the formation and, on occasion, disintegration, of states. Spanning from the Caribbean to East Asia and covering almost 3,000 years of history, from Classical Antiquity to the eve of the twenty-first century, the book is an important contribution to the history of state formation as well as the history of violence at sea. The book has contributions by leading authorities in the field of piracy studies and history more generally: Philip de Souza, Neil Price, Wolfgang Kaiser, Guillame Calafat, James K. Chin, Robert J. Antony, David J. Starkey, Matthew McCarthy, James Francis Warren and Stig Jarle Hansen.

Stefan Eklof Amirell is Associate Professor of History at the Department of History, Lund University, Sweden, and editor-in-chief of Sweden's leading journal for research in history and economic history, Historisk Tidskrift. He is the author of Pirates in Paradise: A Modern History of Southeast Asia's Maritime Marauders (2006) and numerous articles and book chapters on contemporary piracy and the history of maritime violence and security.

Leos Muller is Professor of History and Director of the Centre for Maritime Studies (CEMAS), Stockholm University, Sweden. He is the author of Consuls, Corsairs, and Commerce: The Swedish Consular Service and Long-Distance Shipping, 1720–1815 (2004) and many articles and book chapters on Early Modern maritime history.