Sea History

Author : Callum Roberts
Publisher : Island Press
ISBN 13 : 1597265772
Total Pages : 615 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Unnatural History of the Sea written by Callum Roberts and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2009-01-05 with total page 615 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humanity can make short work of the oceans’ creatures. In 1741, hungry explorers discovered herds of Steller’s sea cow in the Bering Strait, and in less than thirty years, the amiable beast had been harpooned into extinction. It’s a classic story, but a key fact is often omitted. Bering Island was the last redoubt of a species that had been decimated by hunting and habitat loss years before the explorers set sail. As Callum M. Roberts reveals in The Unnatural History of the Sea, the oceans’ bounty didn’t disappear overnight. While today’s fishing industry is ruthlessly efficient, intense exploitation began not in the modern era, or even with the dawn of industrialization, but in the eleventh century in medieval Europe. Roberts explores this long and colorful history of commercial fishing, taking readers around the world and through the centuries to witness the transformation of the seas. Drawing on firsthand accounts of early explorers, pirates, merchants, fishers, and travelers, the book recreates the oceans of the past: waters teeming with whales, sea lions, sea otters, turtles, and giant fish. The abundance of marine life described by fifteenth century seafarers is almost unimaginable today, but Roberts both brings it alive and artfully traces its depletion. Collapsing fisheries, he shows, are simply the latest chapter in a long history of unfettered commercialization of the seas. The story does not end with an empty ocean. Instead, Roberts describes how we might restore the splendor and prosperity of the seas through smarter management of our resources and some simple restraint. From the coasts of Florida to New Zealand, marine reserves have fostered spectacular recovery of plants and animals to levels not seen in a century. They prove that history need not repeat itself: we can leave the oceans richer than we found them.

Author : Lincoln Paine
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 1101970359
Total Pages : 802 pages
Book Rating : 4.55/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Sea and Civilization written by Lincoln Paine and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 802 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A monumental retelling of world history through the lens of the sea—revealing in breathtaking depth how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, lake and stream, and how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world’s waterways, bringing together civilizations and defining what makes us most human. The Sea and Civilization is a mesmerizing, rhapsodic narrative of maritime enterprise, from the origins of long-distance migration to the great seafaring cultures of antiquity; from Song Dynasty human-powered paddle-boats to aircraft carriers and container ships. Lincoln Paine takes the reader on an intellectual adventure casting the world in a new light, in which the sea reigns supreme. Above all, Paine makes clear how the rise and fall of civilizations can be linked to the sea. An accomplishment of both great sweep and illuminating detail, The Sea and Civilization is a stunning work of history.

Author : Benjamin Woods Labaree
Publisher : Mystic Seaport Museum
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 704 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book America and the Sea written by Benjamin Woods Labaree and published by Mystic Seaport Museum. This book was released on 1998 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spanning the centuries from maritime activities before Columbus to the nation's maritime involvement today, this rich, complex archive provides a new history of the United States from the fundamental perspective of the sea that surrounds it, and the rivers and lakes that link its vast interior to the seacoast. 350 photos, 55 in color. 10 maps.

Author : John Mack
Publisher : Reaktion Books
ISBN 13 : 1861899289
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Sea written by John Mack and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2013-09-15 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea,” wrote Joseph Conrad. And there is certainly nothing more integral to the development of the modern world. In The Sea: A Cultural History, John Mack considers those great expanses that both unite and divide us, and the ways in which human beings interact because of the sea, from navigation to colonization to trade. Much of the world’s population lives on or near the cost, and as Mack explains, in a variety of ways, people actually inhabit the sea. The Sea looks at the characteristics of different seas and oceans and investigates how the sea is conceptualized in various cultures. Mack explores the diversity of maritime technologies, especially the practice of navigation and the creation of a society of the sea, which in many cultures is all-male, often cosmopolitan, and always hierarchical. He describes the cultures and the social and technical practices characteristic of seafarers, as well as their distinctive language and customs. As he shows, the separation of sea and land is evident in the use of different vocabularies on land and on sea for the same things, the change in a mariner’s behavior when on land, and in the liminal status of points uniting the two realms, like beaches and ports. Mack also explains how ships are deployed in symbolic contexts on land in ecclesiastical and public architecture. Yet despite their differences, the two realms are always in dialogue in symbolic and economic terms. Casting a wide net, The Sea uses histories, maritime archaeology, biography, art history, and literature to provide an innovative and experiential account of the waters that define our worldly existence.

Author : Stephen K. Stein
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 856 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Sea in World History [2 volumes] written by Stephen K. Stein and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-04-24 with total page 856 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This two-volume set documents the essential role of the sea and maritime activity across history, from travel and food production to commerce and conquest. In all eras, water transport has served as the cheapest and most efficient means of moving cargo and people over any significant distance. Only relatively recently have railroads and aircraft provided an alternative. Most of the world's bulk goods continue to travel primarily by ship over water. Even today, 95 percent of the cargo that enters and leaves the United States does so by ship. Similarly, people around the world rely on the sea for food, and in recent years, the sea has become an important source of oil and other resources, with the longterm effects of our continuing efforts to extract resources from the sea further highlighting environmental concerns that range from pollution to the exhaustion of fish stocks. This chronologically organized two-volume reference addresses the history of the sea, beginning with ancient civilizations (4000 to 1000 BCE) and ending with the modern era (1945 to the present day). Each of the eight chapters is further broken down into sections that focus on specific nations or regions, offering detailed descriptions of that area of the world and shorter entries on specific topics, individuals, and events. The book spans maritime history, covering major seafaring peoples and nations; famous explorers, travelers, and commanders; events, battles, and wars; key technologies, including famous ships; important processes and ongoing events, such as piracy and the slave trade; and more. Readers will benefit from dozens of primary source documents—ranging from ancient Egyptian tales of seafaring to texts by renowned travelers like Marco Polo, Zheng He, and Ibn Battuta—that provide firsthand accounts from the age of discovery as well as accounts of battle from World War I and II and more modern accounts of the sea.

Author : Admiral James Stavridis, USN
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0735220611
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sea Power written by Admiral James Stavridis, USN and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the most admired admirals of his generation—and the only admiral to serve as Supreme Allied Commander at NATO—comes a remarkable voyage through all of the world’s most important bodies of water, providing the story of naval power as a driver of human history and a crucial element in our current geopolitical path. From the time of the Greeks and the Persians clashing in the Mediterranean, sea power has determined world power. To an extent that is often underappreciated, it still does. No one understands this better than Admiral Jim Stavridis. In Sea Power, Admiral Stavridis takes us with him on a tour of the world’s oceans from the admiral’s chair, showing us how the geography of the oceans has shaped the destiny of nations, and how naval power has in a real sense made the world we live in today, and will shape the world we live in tomorrow. Not least, Sea Power is marvelous naval history, giving us fresh insight into great naval engagements from the battles of Salamis and Lepanto through to Trafalgar, the Battle of the Atlantic, and submarine conflicts of the Cold War. It is also a keen-eyed reckoning with the likely sites of our next major naval conflicts, particularly the Arctic Ocean, Eastern Mediterranean, and the South China Sea. Finally, Sea Power steps back to take a holistic view of the plagues to our oceans that are best seen that way, from piracy to pollution. When most of us look at a globe, we focus on the shape of the of the seven continents. Admiral Stavridis sees the shapes of the seven seas. After reading Sea Power, you will too. Not since Alfred Thayer Mahan’s legendary The Influence of Sea Power upon History have we had such a powerful reckoning with this vital subject.

Author : Nathan Miller
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0195110382
Total Pages : 614 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book War at Sea written by Nathan Miller and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1997 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the sinking of the British passenger liner Athenia on September 3, 1939, by a German U-boat (against orders) to the Japanese surrender on board the Missouri on September 2, 1945, War at Sea covers every major naveal battle of World War II. "A first-rate work and the best history of its kind yet written".--Vice Admiral William P. Mack, U.S.N. (Ret.). 30 photos.

Author : David Abulafia
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199934983
Total Pages : 1115 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Boundless Sea written by David Abulafia and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019 with total page 1115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "David Abulafia's new book guides readers along the world's greatest bodies of water to reveal their primary role in human history. The main protagonists are the three major oceans-the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian-which together comprise the majority of the earth's water and cover over half of its surface. Over time, as passage through them gradually extended and expanded, linking first islands and then continents, maritime networks developed, evolving from local exploration to lines of regional communication and commerce and eventually to major arteries. These waterways carried goods, plants, livestock, and of course people-free and enslaved-across vast expanses, transforming and ultimately linking irrevocably the economies and cultures of Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas"--

Author : Christian Buchet
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 1042 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Sea in History written by Christian Buchet and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 1042 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How important has the sea been in the development of human history? Very important indeed is the conclusion of this ground-breaking four volume work. The books bring together the world's leading maritime historians, who address the question of what difference the sea has made in relation to around 250 situations ranging from the earliest times to the present. They consider, across the entire world, subjects related to human migration, trade, economic development, warfare, the building of political units including states and empires, the dissemination of ideas, culture and religion, and much more, showing how the sea was crucial to all these aspects of human development. The Sea in History - The Early Modern World covers the period from around the end of the fifteenth century up to the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. It examines the establishment and growth of 'the Atlantic World', but also considers maritime developments in the Indian Ocean, Southeast and East Asia and Africa, and highlights the continuing importance of the North Sea and the Baltic. A very wide range of maritime subjects is explored including trade, which went through a huge global expansion in this period; fishing; shipping, shipbuilding, navigation and ports; the role of the sea in the dissemination of religious ideas; the nature of life for sailors in different places and periods; and the impact of trade in particularly important commodities, including wine, slaves, sugar and tobacco. One particularly interesting chapter is on the Hanse, the important maritime commercial 'empire' based in north Germany, which extended much more widely than is often realised and whose significance and huge impact have often been overlooked. 33 of the contributions are in English; 42 are in French. CHRISTIAN BUCHET is Professor of Maritime History, Catholic University of Paris, Scientific Director of Océanides and a member of l'Académie de marine. GÉRARD LE BOUDEC is Emeritus Professor of the University of South Brittany.

Author : Craig L. Symonds
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190243694
Total Pages : 720 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

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Download or read book World War II at Sea written by Craig L. Symonds and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-02 with total page 720 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author of Lincoln and His Admirals (winner of the Lincoln Prize), The Battle of Midway (Best Book of the Year, Military History Quarterly), and Operation Neptune, (winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature), Craig L. Symonds has established himself as one of the finest naval historians at work today. World War II at Sea represents his crowning achievement: a complete narrative of the naval war and all of its belligerents, on all of the world's oceans and seas, between 1939 and 1945. Opening with the 1930 London Conference, Symonds shows how any limitations on naval warfare would become irrelevant before the decade was up, as Europe erupted into conflict once more and its navies were brought to bear against each other. World War II at Sea offers a global perspective, focusing on the major engagements and personalities and revealing both their scale and their interconnection: the U-boat attack on Scapa Flow and the Battle of the Atlantic; the "miracle" evacuation from Dunkirk and the pitched battles for control of Norway fjords; Mussolini's Regia Marina-at the start of the war the fourth-largest navy in the world-and the dominance of the Kidö Butai and Japanese naval power in the Pacific; Pearl Harbor then Midway; the struggles of the Russian Navy and the scuttling of the French Fleet in Toulon in 1942; the landings in North Africa and then Normandy. Here as well are the notable naval leaders-FDR and Churchill, both self-proclaimed "Navy men," Karl Dönitz, François Darlan, Ernest King, Isoroku Yamamoto, Erich Raeder, Inigo Campioni, Louis Mountbatten, William Halsey, as well as the hundreds of thousands of seamen and officers of all nationalities whose live were imperiled and lost during the greatest naval conflicts in history, from small-scale assaults and amphibious operations to the largest armadas ever assembled. Many have argued that World War II was dominated by naval operations; few have shown and how and why this was the case. Symonds combines precision with story-telling verve, expertly illuminating not only the mechanics of large-scale warfare on (and below) the sea but offering wisdom into the nature of the war itself.