The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates

This book produces what it promised ... an analysis of pirate behaviours and practices from a fairly pure economic perspective. Leeson writes in a fluent and accessible style and injects about the right amount of historical data. Too little would have made me feel like I ought to have read up on the golden age of piracy in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries before I started on this book. Too much may have made the book drag on a bit. He has chosen the events carefully to support his arguments and keep the interest level from flagging. His research appears to have been comprehensive. Although he is an self-confessed pirate tragic, he keeps the voice he uses in the book clinical enough to be convincing rather than romantic. The pirates were rogues, robbers and driven by greed but not usually gratuitously violent or vicious. It's an informative and entertaining book which I enjoyed.

Peter T. Leeson spoke at my college when I was a freshman (six years ago now) and I went for an extra credit in my gen ed econ class. His talk was so memorable that even six years later, when I needed to research piracy and wanted a unique angle, I remembered him and purchased his book. It didn't disappoint! THE INVISIBLE HOOK provides a very interesting look into the life of pirates, examining the role of economics in everything from self-governance to torture. While maintaining a conversational, often amusing tone, Leeson does a fabulous job of blending the (potentially dry) foundations of economics with the fascinating life and customs of pirates. Definitely would recommend to pirate lovers, and/or reluctant economics students!

The Invisible Hook by Peter T. Leeson gives an in depth look at a very misunderstood group of people, pirates. Leeson has done extensive research on pirates in an attempt to provide an accurate portrayal of how these people lived. He debunks many of the myths of pirates that have become popular largely due to Hollywood movies and other works of fiction. For example, pirates were significantly more democratic and would avoid fighting with merchant ships whenever possible. Also, the idea of the captain having supreme control while living a lavish lifestyle is a myth according to the research done by Leeson. This is far from an ordinary history book giving a chronological timeline of events. Instead, Leeson is able to put their history within a framework of economics. This allows for a much greater explanation about the motivations behind the pirate lifestyle. The title of the book is a play on economist Adam Smith's theory of the Invisible Hand, which states people are guided to self-interest. Pirate life, as argued by Leeson, is primarily led by profit seeking. They make decisions that are rational in order to maximize their take of the plunder. It is a very well researched book. It is obvious that the author spent the time to accurately detail pirate life, rather than just taking people's current perception as fact. Leeson does a good job at explaining economics in a way a normal person could understand. The biggest downside of the book is his tendency to repeat himself. It became apparent that Leeson was having difficulty filling an entire book (it is a relatively short book as it is) so he tends to go over topics previously covered. In addition every chapter has an unnecessary summary of what you just read that seems like it is just there to fill some pages. Overall it was a very good read. The topic is so different from most other books in the economics genre. It allows the reader to grasp a better understanding of economics without reading boring textbooks and staring at supply and demand graphs.

The author does a splendid job of entertaining and educating the reader. For those without an Austrian or Chicago School of Economics viewpoint, it should be even more valuable and a great way to challenge your viewpoint.

TLDR: The book was just OK. He got a lot of his facts about pirates wrong. The economic conclusions Leeson drew seemed sound except that the starting premises were often already skewed. Also, he focused on microeconomics as a driver of decisions for individual pirates and crews. I was definitely hoping for a macroeconomic look at how piracy jump started towns like Newport and Charleston who served as fences for all the stolen goods. I was hoping for more on the liquidity issues of that era that came from an insufficient money supply, and how they were resolved (ironically enough through trickle down economics) courtesy of the mines of South America. On the plus side that means there's material for a second book.

What begins as a simple story of Pirates soon turns into an unique journey through Economics and History. Peter Leeson, who is an Economist, uses methodological individualism to analyze the behavior of Pirates as simple profit seekers. This allows Leeson to give a different view of the Pirates then most of us are used to. He also introduces us to many unknown facts about Pirates, who are a common cultural obsession. The secret to his book is the fact that he teaches us both Economics and History without you even realizing it. Books like More Sex is Safer Sex by Steve Landsburg and Freakonomics by Steven Levitt teach you an unconventional way to look at problems, but often not through a classic historical case. This book will do both without you hardly noticing. The Invisible Hook is not written in a way that is hard for non-Economists to understand. It is written just for that type of audience. This book now ranks top on my list of books to recommend those as an introductory lesson into the economic way of thinking. At the same time, if you do study Economics you will not be bored as the historical mechanism takes over. For example, you may know what signaling is but the economics student likely does not know exactly how the Pirates used the flag, the Jolly Roger, to signal to other ships. One of the most interesting parts of the book is the very last chapter. Leeson sets up a class in Pirate Management with the professor Blackbeard. Without giving to much away, he goes through and restates points in the book with modern literature. He also provides a very good reading list for those who want to read further into Economics in that chapter. This is the most unique way I have ever seen anyone end a book. It allows Leeson to review the points and restate them in a new light without putting the reader to sleep, as I am famous for skimming through conclusions. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn anything about Pirates or Economics. It is probably likely that most of Leeson's readers will buy the book for the former, but the reader will soon find himself interested in the latter. Dr. Leeson is a rising star in the field of Economics and this is a good way for him to start.

I loved this book. I enjoy economics as a hobby, I find it's a beautiful tool for understanding some of the complexities of the world. But this gem, is one of a kind. I love pirates as well (Praise His Noodles), and a book that combined economics and pirates was a great find. The book takes the historical data on pirates, compares it to some of the legend and lore that get mixed into our idea of what the golden age of piracy was, and puts the lens of economics over it. I learned a lot about pirates & history, and really enjoyed the entire book. I would very much so buy other books by this author.

This book is a great mix of an interesting story and the use of economics. You get both the fun of reading about pirates and the knowledge of how economics can be applied to all sorts of topics. Dr. Leeson shows that you can think inside and outside the box at the same time. There's a logic to the way that pirates operate that shows even the worst sorts of people can get along. If even pirates can find peaceful solutions to cooperating, there's much greater hope for the rest of us!