Description
Book SynopsisThis collection presents a new vision of world history, focused not on the land but on the 70% of the Earth's surface covered by water. Leading experts introduce the history of oceans (Indian, Pacific, Atlantic) and seas (South China, Mediterranean, Red, Black, Baltic, and more) for teachers, students and researchers.
Trade Review'This is the book oceanic scholars have been waiting for. Five oceans, six seas, eleven top scholars and a dozen magisterial essays that map the contemporary state of oceanic historiographies. With a rambunctious 'cast' of wind, wave, whale, ship and sailor, the volume probes the surface and depth of the ocean, the historical and the environmental, extending our sense of world history, both vertically and horizontally.' Isabel Hofmeyr, University of the Witwatersrand and New York University
'Armitage, Bashford and Sivasundaram have produced a skillfully piloted volume navigating the history and historiography of the oceans of the world and the lands that abut them. A marvelous summation of the state of the field of oceanic histories that will be indispensable reading for scholars and students alike.' Sugata Bose, Harvard University, Massachusetts
'A rich and deeply informative set of essays that is valuable at two levels. It shows how global historians can benefit from devoting more sustained attention to the histories of oceans. Simultaneously, the individual essays also illumine the differences in the past (and present) between different large stretches of water and the lands involved with them.' Linda Colley, Princeton University, New Jersey
'Altogether, this collection certainly achieves to survey and critically evaluate the impressive range of oceanic historiography-its diverse history, approaches, and critical vocabulary, and its promise for a less anthropocentric practice of history as a much needed corrective that helps the field of history to contribute to a heightened consciousness regarding the consequences of both human and nonhuman, oceanic agencies for the history of our planet.' Alexandra Ganser, American Historical Review
Table of ContentsList of maps; Abbreviations; Notes on contributors; Introduction: writing world oceanic histories Sujit Sivasundaram, Alison Bashford and David Armitage; Part I. Oceans: 1. The Indian Ocean Sujit Sivasundaram; 2. The Pacific Ocean Alison Bashford; 3. The Atlantic Ocean David Armitage; Part II. Seas: 4. The South China Sea Eric Tagliacozzo; 5. The Mediterranean Sea Molly Greene; 6. The Red Sea Jonathan Miran; 7. The Sea of Japan/Korea's East Sea Alexis Dudden; 8. The Baltic Sea Michael North; 9. The Black Sea Stella Ghervas; Part III. Poles: 10. The Arctic Ocean Sverker Sörlin; 11. The Southern Ocean Alessandro Antonello; Further reading; Index.
