Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

This hit the right mix of niche nonfiction with the potential of mainstream appeal, a good purchase for libraries with strong nonfiction readership

Pirate enlightenment might seem oxymoronic, but in this book Graeber will argue that the pirate settlements in Madagascar were “proto-Enlightenment political experiments.” His argument is based on various propositions. A few examples include the “self-conscious attempts to reproduce” on land the pirate ship social organization model; the interest in and discussion of pirates in western societies meets the “conversational forms” test; and the notion that the arrival of pirates in Madagascar sparked revolutions.

While this book is an interesting and, at times, exciting account of life on Madagascar at that time, I was not convinced by Graeber’s support for proto-Enlightenment political experiments. The conversational forms and revolution connections seem to be a reach. As to the egalitarian structure, he cites too many examples that undermined this important feature. It is on this basis alone that I rate this title. Otherwise, this is an unusual topic presented with intelligence. For those who shy at academic titles, don’t be fooled—this book is filled with drama, intrigue, and action. It’s a compelling read.

Sadly for the last time, David Graeber delved into his vast knowledge to make us all question ours. Pirate Enlightenment is, as the author explains, a long essay turned into a short sized (for contemporary standards and especially if you have just read The Dawn of Everything) book. Graeber entices the reader into paying attention with the title, proceeds to explain a part of mid 1000s history of Madagascar, only to then show us how much we don't know about the origins of some of the so called "enlightenment" ideas and politics.
If you liked questioning common perspectives of humanity's past in The Dawn of Everything, this one is a must read. If you never read anything by Graeber and are no history or anthropology buff, this won't be the easiest start, but it is certainly a valuable read.
I thank Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. You know you’re in good hands when the author tells you in the introduction that people hate long essays, so he turned this into a short book, which everyone loves. And this is a very interesting posthumous short book about pirates. Going through the scant and contradictory known material written during the brief time of the pirates, the author knocks down the tall tales, but still tells a fascinating story.

After finishing this, I feel even more keenly that the world has lost an important voice with David Graeber's passing. His way of seeing the world, and humanity's history and potential is one in a million. The fact that this was essentially a novella in terms of length somewhat left me unsatisfied because I could have continued reading Graeber's fascinating analysis with respect to the pirate settlements on the coast of Madagascar. Who isn't a fan of pirates? But this essay peels back the swashbuckling narrative to examine how the native Madagascar people and the pirate settlers interacted, exchanged ideas, and organized themselves politically. The Madagascar "kings" may not have been kings at all, and word of the social experimentation taking place in Madagascar trickled back to Europe as some of the Enlightenment writers were putting pen to paper. This was an interesting read, but for me, it may have been too short. Graeber self-admittedly only scratches the surface here, and he has left the door open for scholars to follow.