Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History’s First Global Manhunt

(Riverhead, $28) Henry Every lacks the name recognition of other pirates of the past, said David Holahan in USA Today. But in 1695, the rogue British royal navy officer orchestrated perhaps the most lucrative heist in criminal history, storming and seizing an Indian ship brimming with $20 million in treasure. Steven Johnson’s account of the raid and its sweeping fallout is “the perfect book to cozy up to during a pandemic.” Yet it’s not a mere adventure yarn. Though Every deserves no accolades, his stunning exploit “changed the very nature and geography of piracy,” which in turn fueled the rise of corporate maritime power and enabled the conquest of India by Britain’s East India Co.

Johnson doesn’t attempt to have Every carry the story, said Giles Milton in The Sunday Times (U.K.). Little is known

about the future buccaneer before 1694, when he led a mutiny on a 46-gun British ship. Sixteen months and thousands of miles later, the rogue vessel crossed paths with the mighty Ganj-i-Sawai, which was ferrying wealthy pilgrims back from Mecca. The larger ship was owned by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, and when Every’s men attacked, they raped the women, tortured the men, and stole all the riches in sight. To appease a furious Aurangzeb, Britain launched a global manhunt, and the East India Co. assumed policing powers that, in Johnson’s view, birthed an empire. Truly, though, Every’s legacy is “probably much narrower and darker”: inspiring a younger generation of high-seas crooks. Especially because he eluded capture.

But humor Johnson, said Adam Higginbotham in The New York Times. “He uses Every’s remarkable story as the organizing principle for a kaleidoscopic rumination on the ways in which a single event can change the course of history” and on the many variables that contribute to each event. Henry Every never would have made history if not for the development of cannons, the miserable living conditions of 17th-century seamen, and many other factors Johnson explores. And without Henry, “the world might have turned out to be a very different place.”