Most confrontations viewed from the wide angle of history are minor disputes sparks that
quickly die out. But every now and then someone strikes a match that lights up the whole
planet. Henry Every was the seventeenth century's most notorious pirate. The press published
wildly popular-and wildly inaccurate-reports of his nefarious adventures. The British
government offered enormous bounties for his capture alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven
Johnson argues that Every's most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift
in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event-the attack of an Indian
treasure ship by Every and his crew-and its surprising repercussions across time and space.
It's the gripping tale one of the most lucrative crimes in history the first international
manhunt and the trial of the seventeenth century. Johnson uses the extraordinary story of
Henry Every and his crimes to explore the emergence of the East India Company the British
Empire and the modern global marketplace: a densely interconnected planet ruled by nations and
corporations. How did this unlikely pirate and his notorious crime end up playing a key role in
the birth of multinational capitalism? In the same mode as Johnson's classic historical
thriller The Ghost Map Enemy of All Mankind deftly traces the path from a single struck match
to a global conflagration.
