Mon premier blog

The Atlantic (Seas in History). Paul Butel

Download The Atlantic (Seas in History)

The Atlantic (Seas in History) Paul Butel. pdf ebook Publisher: Language: English Page: 352 ISBN: 0415106907, 9780203010440

From Library Journal

Butel (modern history, Universit? Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux) has written a global history of the Atlantic Ocean from the beginning of recorded history through the present. Seas and oceans, Butel argues in this interesting book, have had an immense cultural influence on civilizations. Beginning with early sea legends and realities that arose before the Spanish and Portuguese explorations in the 15th century, he weaves a tapestry of geographers and explorers who helped shape the history and development of Atlantic navigation. Chapters chart a succession of explorers, economic considerations, and national rivalries. Heavily footnoted (with a bibliography containing both English and French sources), this attempt at global history wonderfully details the history of the Atlantic up through the 18th century. (Those looking for a detailed history of the Atlantic for the last two centuries must look elsewhere: here they get only a chapter each.) Recommended for academic and specialized maritime libraries.AHarold N. Boyer, Springfield P.L., PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From

To modern legatees of the voyages of discovery, the Atlantic is just a pond crossed quickly by jetliner, somewhat slower by the container ships that connect prosperous nations. Gazing past the Pillars of Hercules, the ancients (except for intrepid Phoenicians) recoiled from a forbidding ocean; not so the Vikings, who established a few colonies on its northern islands. These are among the topics Butel, a French historian, explores in this survey of the human history of the Atlantic Ocean. Drawing on seemingly encyclopedic knowledge about the Atlantic, Butel composes a comprehensible popular work covering all aspects of Atlantic maritime transportation--ship technology, weather patterns, geography, particular voyages, wars, and commerce--but of all these topics, commerce dominates his narrative. It alone made crossing the Atlantic worthwhile: the Spanish reaped an immediate payoff in conquered silver, then followed the returns from the English plantation economies and the African slave trade on which they relied; and the Dutch and French elbowed in as best they could. A wide-angle perspective most useful in large collections. Gilbert Taylor