Historian Davis contemplates the New Orleans privateers Jean and Pierre Laffite, who loomed large in Gulf Coast waters—and in history—from about the time of the Louisiana Purchase and into the 1820s. Although adding little new research, Davis (Lincoln's Men
), director of programs for the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, does an admirable job of recounting the brothers' true story, separating fact from clouded legend. The senior brother and brains of the operation, Pierre, was born in Bordeaux, France, around 1770. His half-brother Jean followed about 12 years later. By 1803 the brothers were in New Orleans and soon embarked on careers as privateers with a presence extending as far as Pensacola and Galveston. Davis is particularly strong in revealing the brothers as complex if ruthless businessmen who, while savaging the trade of Spanish merchants on the gulf, formed the foundation for a profitable syndicate. Their associates included leading citizens and government officials on the take. The Laffites themselves, however, became notorious only when they courted the Spanish and betrayed their allies. Davis tells their story eloquently and with some admiration, while at the same time acknowledging that the freewheeling Laffites spent as voraciously as they earned and squandered their empire, leaving nothing behind but their legend. 8 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW
. (May)
