A titanic history of the three great oceans - the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian - and of mankind's relationship with the sea from the first voyagers to the present day.
David Abulafia is Emeritus Professor of Mediterranean History at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College and a former Chairman of the Cambridge History Faculty. His previous books include Frederick II, The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms and The Great Sea, which has been translated into a dozen languages. He is a member of the Academia Europaea, and in 2003 was made Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella della Solidariet Italiana in recognition of his work on Italian and Mediterranean history.
In its mixture of supreme storytelling, beautifully drawn
characters, fearless scope and rigorous scholarship, it ranks with
the very best of world histories. ... From Morocco to Hawaii,
Australia to the Persian Gulf, he delivers an intense and thrilling
tour de force, filled with pirates, kings, scholars, monsters,
conquerors, sailors, merchants, adventurers, slavers and slaves,
taking us from the age of triremes and longships, hulks and cogs,
dhows and junks, galleons and dreadnoughts, all the way up to the
container ship. -- Simon Sebag-Montefiore * Daily Telegraph *
His grasp of the material is not so much encyclopaedic as
breathtaking ... this is a tour de force. Writing history on this
scale is challenging and enormously impressive; the author deserves
applause for a magisterial achievement. -- Peter Frankopan * Sunday
Times *
The Boundless Sea is a work of immense scholarship, a forensic
tribute to human enterprise. ... After reading this book your
horizons will be wonderfully expanded, and you'll be as eager as
the Ancient Mariner to retell its stories... Abulafia's masterpiece
has the potential to alter the way we understand the human story
and our place within it. -- Horatio Clare * Spectator *
This is a book written with deep scholarship, but also with
lightness and dexterity...It is the seamless melding of the
personal and the universal that makes The Boundless Sea so
compelling, as the reader meets explorers, brigands, religious
fanatics and adventurers. ... This book must be among the
favourites of the year. It is rich, humorous and insightful,
and Abulafia, emeritus professor of Mediterranean history at
Cambridge, manages the art of letting his readers believe they
are every bit as learned as he is for the happy days, or weeks,
that reading this behemoth will date. This is a journey that few
will want to end. -- Alexander Larman * Observer *
Nothing less than a history of humanity written from the
perspective of the sea -- Jerry Brotton * Financial Times *
David Abulafia's 2011 The Great Sea: A Human History of the
Mediterranean set a standard in Middle Sea scholarship,
charting a course from 22,000 BC to today, combining careful detail
with epic sweep. This dazzlingly ambitious companion-piece looks
far beyond the Strait and Suez, towards seaways older than those of
Odysseus but less often explored. ... Readers might reasonably
anticipate dull determinism, or boundless angst, but
these shallows are avoided by shrewd sensitivity, and the sheer
majesty of his subject. ... The Boundless Sea offers depth,
zooming from ninth century steering to mirage-humped horizons. ...
The sea will always spring surprises, but we plainly need to
reimagine our coasts. The Boundless Sea reminds us
brilliantly of once brand-new landfalls - times when endless oceans
glittered with primordial possibilities. -- Derek Turner *
Irish Times *
one of the most ambitious histories, on any theme, published
lately... an unparalleled synthesis of human engagement with
the oceans. It will be a benchmark - or perhaps the Plimsoll
line - against which all future histories of planet Ocean will be
judged. -- David Armitage * Times Literary Supplement *
Feast on the magnificent bounty that Abulafia has to offer. --
Gerard DeGroot * The Times *
David Abulafia's The Boundless Sea ... is a majestic and
beautifully illustrated account of human interaction with the
sea, ranging from the Polynesians of the Pacific in the 1st
century to the supertankers and vast cruise ships of our own times.
Abulafia writes fluently and with deep humanity across the vast
expanse of his subject. -- Ruth Scurr * Spectator Books of the
Year *
Cast aside what you think you know about maritime history. In
this huge study of the oceans, David Abulafia ... offers a big
collection of seafaring stories told with simple elegance. --
Gerard DeGroot * The Times Books of the Year *
It is hard to do justice to the historical sweep and richness of
detail of Abulafia's latest epic work of maritime scholarship...
this books is nothing less than a human history of humanity written
from the perspective of the oceans. -- Tom Barber * Financial
Times Books of the Year *
a dazzling history of the oceans ... His sheer breadth is
staggering: one moment you're reading about the journeys of
Ferdinand Magellan, the next you're onto the rise of cruise liners
and container ships. Abulafia handles his vast material with the
skill of a master mariner, and his book is one of the year's most
bracing and surprising voyages. -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday
Times Books of the Year *
He has a genius for reframing history, for shaking our
assumptions and placing new peoples and concepts under the
limelight. In The Boundless Sea Prof Abulafia gives us the
story of the world as shaped by the pulse of its maritime trade
routes. -- Barnaby Rogerson * Country Life Books of the Year *
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