HST5230 - Piracy and Civilisation: Antiquity to the Golden Age - 2025/26

Why does the pirate—a figure defined by theft and violence—endure as a romantic hero? From Caesar’s kidnappers to digital insurgents, the pirate occupies a volatile threshold between the violence of the ungoverned ocean and utopian notions of liberty outside the law. This module traces piracy as a cultural force that defines and defies the boundaries of civilisation. We will navigate a global timeline connecting the Barbary Coast and the Caribbean to modern geopolitical flashpoints and the speculative fiction of space travel. Dismantling the myths of the ‘Jolly Roger’, we reveal the brutal economic realities of predation while analysing why society projects ideals of freedom onto rogues, rebels, and renegades. Ultimately, students will evaluate how piracy defines the State itself—from the oared galleys of Antiquity, through the ages of sail and steam, across the seas of cyberspace, and into the final frontier.