I learned more about the tragic and fantastic history of the Caribbean in the first thirty pages of this book than I ever learned in my history classes in school. Well written and easily accessible, this book helps the reader to see the natives in their pristine world, before the Europeans arrived and changed—destroyed—everything they ever knew. The author does not sugarcoat the history of the region. He does not apologize for what he has learned and has delivered to his audience. He presents the information he has found, positive and negative, and let’s the reader interpret what it means. Were the natives cannibals? Were they unfairly and tragically labeled cannibals in order to facilitate the greed of the Europeans and to justify their enslavement? Was there another truth, somewhere in between? The reader is left to judge.
Pirates. Buccaneers. Privateers. Entrepreneurs. Were those men of legend and their legendary deeds the caricatures we have seen in the movies, in cartoons, and in children’s books? Or, were they something entirely different. The Eighth Flag presents the history of the region and it’s many and varied inhabitants, natives and interlopers, indigenous tribes and carpetbaggers, with sensitivity and aplomb. Well researched and well written. A must read for the history lover.