Everyone knows about pirates: or do they? The Hollywood stereotype - black flags and peg-legs, cutlasses and cannons, exotic yet sinister pets, buried treasure - is familiar and entrancing, but there is much more to be told. This book takes the reader on a voyage of discovery, investigating who these pirates were, describing their exploits and everyday lives, examining the origins of many myths about them, and explaining their incredible, often unrecognised, impact on history. Socially, economically, and politically, pirates and piracy moulded European empires as they rose to global power in the 17th and 18th centuries. They shaped our modern world and left troubling legacies.