Atlantic : great sea battles, heroic discoveries, titanic storms, and a vast ocean of a million stories
Summary
Until a thousand years ago, no humans ventured into the Atlantic or imagined traversing its vastness. But once the first daring mariners successfully navigated to far shores, whether it was the Vikings, the Irish, the Chinese, Christopher Columbus in the north, or the Portuguese and the Spanish in t... Full description
Summary: |
Until a thousand years ago, no humans ventured into the Atlantic or imagined traversing its vastness. But once the first daring mariners successfully navigated to far shores, whether it was the Vikings, the Irish, the Chinese, Christopher Columbus in the north, or the Portuguese and the Spanish in the south, the Atlantic evolved in the world's growing consciousness of itself as an enclosed body of water bounded by the Americas to the West, and by Europe and Africa to the East. This book is a biography of this immense space, of a sea which has defined and determined so much about the lives of the millions who live beside or near its tens of thousands of miles of coast. The Atlantic has been central to the ambitions of explorers, scientists and warriors, and it continues to affect our character, attitudes, and dreams. The author chronicles that relationship, making the Atlantic come vividly alive.--From publisher description. |
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Physical Description: |
xiv, 495 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm. |
Bibliography: |
Includes bibliographical references (p. [469]-477) and index. |
ISBN: |
9780061702587 (hardcover : alk. paper) : 9780061702624 (pbk. : alk. paper) 0061702587 (hardcover : alk. paper) 0061702625 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
Author Notes: |
He is the author of numerous books including In Holy Terror, The River at the Center of the World, The Alice Behind Wonderland, The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, and.Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World. In 2006, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to journalism and literature. (Bowker Author Biography) |