The Atlantic World: A History, 1400-1888 [Paperback]

Douglas R. Egerton (Author), Alison Games (Author), Jane G. Landers (Author), Kris Lane (Author), Donald R. Wright (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0882952455 | ISBN-13: 978-0882952451 | Publication Date: February 28, 2007

Before the voyage of Columbus in 1492, the Atlantic Ocean stood as a barrier to contact between the people (and their ideas and institutions), plants, animals, and microbes of Eurasia and Africa on the one hand and the Americas on the other. Following Columbus' voyage, the Atlantic turned into a conduit for transferring these things among the four continents bordering the ocean in ways that affected people living on each of them. The appearance of "The Atlantic World" marks an important achievement, for it stands out as the first successful attempt to combine the many strains of Atlantic history into a comprehensive, thoughtful narrative. At the core of this ground-breaking and eloquently written survey lies a consideration of the relationships among people living in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, with a focus on how these relationships played important roles - often the most important roles - in how the histories of the people involved unfolded. The ways of life of millions of people changed, sometimes for the better but often for the worse, because of their relationship to the larger Atlantic world. And unlike existing texts dealing with one or another aspect of Atlantic history, "The Atlantic World" does not subjugate the history of Africa and South America to those of the 'British Atlantic' or Europe. With historians and other scholars beginning to reconceptualise the Atlantic World as a dynamic zone of exchange in which people, commodities, and ideas circulated from the mid-fifteenth century until the dawn of the twentieth century, the interconnections between people along the Atlantic rim create a coherent region, one in which events in one corner inevitably altered the course of history in another. As this book testifies, Atlantic history, properly understood, is history without borders - in which national narratives take backstage to the larger examination of interdependence and cultural transmission. Conceived of and produced by a team of distinguished authors with countless hours of teaching experience at the college level, this thoughtfully organised, beautifully written, and lavishly illustrated book will set the standard for all future surveys intended as a core text for the new and rapidly growing courses in Atlantic History.

Product Details

• Paperback: 530 pages
• Publisher: Harlan Davidson (February 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882952455
• ISBN-13: 978-0882952451
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 7.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #437,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Don Wright is Distinguished Teaching Professor of History, Emeritus, at SUNY-Cortland, where he taught African, African-American, and world history for 31 years. He was born in Richmond, Indiana, got degrees from DePauw and Indiana Universities, and moved to New York "because there was a job there." He spent a year (1974-75)collecting oral traditions in The Gambia and Senegal, and has visited Gambia regularly ever since. He was a Scholar in Residence at the Rockefeller Foundation's Study Center in Bellagio, Italy, in 2003 and held the Mark Clark Distinguished Chair of History at The Citadel in 2005-06. He lives with his wife, Doris, in Homer, New York, where he eagerly plants trees, but less-eagerly rakes their leaves. He considers himself the only Cleveland Browns fan in the county.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Long-Needed, All-Comprehensive Textbook, December 6, 2008

By 

E. L. Fay (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Atlantic World: A History, 1400-1888 (Paperback)

Douglas Egerton, Alison Games, Jane Landers, Kris Lane, and Donald Wright's "The Atlantic World" manages to achieve the daunting task of cramming nearly five hundred years of the history of four continents into about five hundred pages. The purpose of Atlantic history, as outlined in the Introduction, is the study of the convergence and conflict of numerous African, Caribbean, European, North American, and South American cultures following Christopher Columbus' arrival in the "New World" and the subsequent collapse of many indigenous societies and their displacement by the Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and English. Africans soon appeared as well, forcibly transported from their homeland to prop up the economies of Europe's American holdings. Perhaps the best illustration of this comes from John Gabriel Stedman's "Narrative of a Five Year Expedition" (1796), that depicts Africa and America personified as two women literally supporting a third, identified as Europe, between them.

Now clearly, America (and, by extension, the Americas) has always been a diverse place, as Ronald Takaki has asserted in his book "A Different Mirror," which discusses the detrimental effects the exclusion of other cultures has had on the teaching of history: "What happens, to borrow the words of Adrienne Rich, 'when someone with the authority of a teacher' describes our society - and 'you are not in it'?" In its efforts to highlight all of Africa, Europe, and the Americas as equal contributors to the Atlantic world, I think a book like this is vital in today's educational environment. For one, it does a wonderful job covering West African history of this period, especially given the criticism of Molefi Kete Asante's highly influential "The Afrocentric Idea in Education," which argues that American schools have traditionally presented Africans as merely passive victims of European aggression and exploitation rather than as active agents in their own right. Atlantic history is perhaps an effective answer to these issues of multiculturalism, as it emphasizes not only the history of myriad cultures in the present-day United States, but also necessarily incorporates the story of other nations and other parts of the world as well. In an era where the Atlantic is now only one aspect of a truly global society, Americans need to understand the rest of the world now more than ever, and "The Atlantic World" will certainly help them do that.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended for public, college library, and world history shelves., September 5, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Atlantic World: A History, 1400-1888 (Paperback)

The Atlantic World: A History, 1400-1888 is a scholarly educational and reference text covering historical events, commerce, wars, immigration patterns, and much more as pertaining to the Atlantic and its continental boundaries. A handful of black-and-white illustrations grace this detailed, in-depth reference, written by five experts and ideal for novice to advanced history students. From the pre-Columbus roots of an Atlantic system, to Columbus' fateful voyage of discovery, the proliferation of the slave trade, labor/migration/settlement patterns, the American revolution and its repercussions, and much more, The Atlantic World reveals how the Atlantic itself was a vital nexus to unfolding history. Highly recommended for public, college library, and world history shelves.