Pirate Enlightenment

Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia is a book by David Graeber, published posthumously in 2023.

Pirate Enlightenment

Author	David Graeber
Subject	Anthropology
Publisher	Farrar Straus & Giroux
Publication date	January 2023
Pages	208
ISBN	9780374610203

Description

In Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia, author David Graeber argues that Ratsimilaho of the Zana-Malata Malagasy ethnic group and descendent of a pirate oversaw a period of democracy and peace as a precursor to the Age of Enlightenment. Graeber contests the common portrayal of Ratsimilaho as a European civilizer.^[1]

Publication

The author, pictured in 2015

The book began as an expansion of a chapter of Graeber's On Kings (2017). Revisiting his early 1990s anthropology dissertation work in Madagascar, Graeber focused on the Zana-Malata and Betsimisaraka ethnic groups.^[1] Graeber finished writing the book in 2013.^[2]

Allen Lane acquired the book's UK rights via Janklow & Nesbit in September 2022.^[3] Its first print run with Farrar Straus & Giroux was 200,000 copies in the United States.^[4]

Reception

Pirate Enlightenment placed on LitHub and The Guardian's most anticipated books of 2023.^[5][6] Upon its release, it appeared on the Indie Bestseller list for hardcover nonfiction, based on reporting from independent bookstores in the United States.^[7]