Join the Newport Historical Society for its monthly book club at the Museum of Newport History & Shop every first Monday of the month at 5:30pm at 127 Thames Street, Newport, RI. Each month features a book with ties to Newport’s history. The books are available for sale in the Shop and on the web store at ShopNewportHistory.com. Purchase your Brick Market Book Club books on the web store and receive 25% off with the code “BOOKCLUB”. Shipping is always only $1 for all web store purchases. Attendance at the Brick Market Book Club is free.
November 5 – Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates by Eric Jay Dolin. Bestselling author Eric Jay Dolin reveals the dramatic and surprising history of American piracy’s “Golden Age” – spanning the late 1600’s through the early 1700’s – when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and beyond. Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of colonial solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them. Through engrossing episodes of roguish glamour and extreme brutality, the star pirates of this period are depicted in detail.
December 3 – In the Hurricane’s Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown by Nathaniel Philbrick. In the fall of 1780, after five frustrating years of war, George Washington had come to realize that the only way to defeat the British Empire was with the help of the French navy. But as he had learned after two years of trying, coordinating his army’s movements with those of a fleet of warships based thousands of miles away was next to impossible. And then on September 5, 1781, the impossible happened. Recognized today as one of the most important naval engagements in the history of the world, the Battle of Chesapeake – fought without a single American ship – made the subsequent victory of the Americans at Yorktown a virtual inevitability.