The Way of the Ship: America's Maritime History Reenvisoned, 1600-2000 [Hardcover]

Alex Roland (Author), W. Jeffrey Bolster (Author), Alexander Keyssar (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470136006 | ISBN-13: 978-0470136003 | Publication Date: November 16, 2007 | Edition: 1

The history of shipping in America, as traditionally recounted, is based primarily on the fortunes of the American merchant marine. This book offers a global perspective and considers oceanic shipping and domestic shipping along America's coasts and inland waterways, with explanations of the forces that influenced the way of the ship. The result is an eye-opening look at American maritime history and the ways it helped shaped the nation’s history. It features beautiful color images of paintings by today’s premier marine artist, John Stobart.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The history of shipping in America from 1600 to 2000, as traditionally recounted,is based primarily on the fortunes of the American merchant marine. The Way of the Ship is different. While it elucidates the significant impact of the merchant marine, this book views American maritime commerce from a global perspective and incorporates the crucial contributions of shipping on coastal and inland waters.

The Way of the Ship tells the important story of the commercial transport of passengers and goods from port to port in American history and the ways in which it fueled the material and economic expansion of the country. Throughout, it explains the factors that influenced—and continue to influence—the shipping industry, from economics, government policy, and labor to the military and technology. It includes intriguing details about the ships and ports that played pivotal roles and the entrepreneurs who took the helm along the way.

Readers will be struck by two paradoxes: the contrast between the volume of U.S. trade and the size of its merchant marine, and the contrast between the importance of shipping in American history and life and its relative invisibility to historians and citizens.

Complete with beautiful color images of paintings by today's premier marine artist, John Stobart, this thought-provoking reference sheds new light on the country's fascinating maritime past and examines the diverse factors that will influence the way of the ship in the twenty-first century.

From the Back Cover

AN ENLIGHTENING,EXPANDED VIEW OFAMERICAN MARITIME HISTORY

From Native Americans with birch bark canoes and inventive colonists who took fishing shallops and laid decks over them for coastal trading to the rise of the automated mass carrier and ever-bigger passenger cruise ships, this book tells the story of four hundred years of America's maritime history. It is filled with powerful and evocative images of ships such as the Mayflower, Savannah, Flying Cloud, Alabama, Sea-Land McLean, and Exxon Valdez; ports, including Boston, New Orleans, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Salem, Buffalo, and Seattle; and people such as Joseph Peabody, Robert Fulton, Mark Twain, Donald McKay, Cornelius Vanderbilt, J. P. Morgan, and Malcom McLean.

The Way of the Ship offers a global perspective and considers both oceanic shipping and domestic shipping along America's coasts and inland waterways, with explanations of the forces that influenced the way of the ship. The result is an eye-opening, authoritative look at American maritime history and the ways it helped shape the nation's history.

Includes 16 color pages of marine paintings by John Stobart.

This is part of a two-book project created by the American Maritime History Project, Inc., an independent enterprise with an office at the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (November 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470136006
• ISBN-13: 978-0470136003
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.6 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #830,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Introduction to a Poorly Understood Subject, November 6, 2008

By 

Truth be Told "Maritime Law" (New York, NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Way of the Ship: America's Maritime History Reenvisoned, 1600-2000 (Hardcover)

"The Way of the Ship" is intended (and mostly succeeds) as a basic introduction to the history of the maritime industry of the United States from 1607 to the first years of the 21st century. Roland does an admirable job at describing the growth of the maritime sector in New England and how that industry played a considerable role in the character of New England's economy from the 17th century through the 19th century. He rightly notes that coastwide trade between various colonial ports played a significant part in the development of a national consciousness and that without these economic ties it would be arguable whether there would ever have developed the necessary sense of identity that led to the War of Independence. Roland also does a commendable job at examining aspects of America's maritime history that are often ignored by maritime histories. One particuarly strong point in this respect is the book's frequent references to the role of riverine or "brown water" carriage in the development of the maritime industry in America and its considerable role in America's economic growth (those who work in the maritime industry will know that the issue du jour these days is what is now called short sea service, i.e. using waterways and coastwise ocean carriage to offset the demands on interstate roads and railroads). Far too many histories focus solely on the blue water aspect of US maritime history and it's good to see a more balanced approach to this aspect of a complex industry. The book also provides some very good information on the developments in the organization and eventual decline of the maritime labor sector. The reason I only give this book four stars, however, is that it's not as well-edited as it should be. Too often acronyms or terms already defined in earlier chapters are redefined in subsequent chapters. Moreover, the chapters are often far too short, in some instances literally no more than 5-7 pages, followed by a chapter on a similar or related subject during the same chronological period. A good editorial staff would have found ways to organize the material so that chapters made more sense organizationally.

5.0 out of 5 stars A great overview of American Merchant Shipping, December 25, 2011

By 

Jeff T. Eiber - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Way of the Ship: America's Maritime History Reenvisoned, 1600-2000 (Hardcover)

To start out if you are reader for pleasure this book is very difficult to understand. The book covers lots of details but is difficult to read.