Throughout history, how has the sea served as a site for cross-cultural exchange, trade and migration? As historians, how do the fields of naval history, maritime history and oceanic history intersect? A total of 56 experts, 48 chapters and over 1,700 pages explore how representation and understanding of the sea has developed over 2,500 years of cultural and natural history.
Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make it as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six.
The six volumes cover: 1. - Antiquity (500 BCE - 800 CE); 2. - Medieval Age (1800 - 1450); 3. - Renaissance (1450 - 1650); 4. - Age of Enlightenment (1650 - 1800); 5. - Age of Empire (1800 - 1920); 6 - Global Age (1920 - 2000+).
Each volume adopts the same thematic structure, covering: Knowledges, Practices, Networks, Islands and Shores, Travelers, Representation, Imaginary Worlds, and Conflicts, enabling readers to trace one theme throughout history, as well as gaining a thorough overview of each individual period.
Volume 1: A Cultural History of the Sea in Antiquity
Edited by Marie-Claire Beaulieu, Tufts University, USA
1. Knowledges / Georgia L. Irby
2. Practices / Mirella Romero Recio
3. Networks / Zaraza Friedman
4. Conflicts / Jorit Wintjes
5. Islands and Shores / Gabriela Cursaru
6. Travellers / Raimund Shulz
7. Representations / Valérie Toillon
8. Imaginary Worlds / Iris Sulimani
Volume 2: A Cultural History of the Sea in the Medieval Age
Edited by Elizabeth A. Lambourn, De Montfort University, UK
1. Knowledges / Eric Staples
2. Practices / Stephanie Wynne-Jones and Jennifer Harland
3. Networks / Jonathan Shepard
4. Conflicts / Elizabeth Lambourn
5. Islands and Shores / Roxani E. Margariti
6. Travellers / Sharon Kinoshita
7. Representations / Emmanuelle Vagnon
8. Imaginary Worlds / James L. Smith
Volume 3: A Cultural History of the Sea in the Renaissance
Edited by Steve Mentz, St John's University, USA
1. Knowledges / Christopher L. Pastore
2. Practices / John B. Hattendorf
3. Networks / Dan Brayton
4. Conflicts / Dyani Johns Taff
5. Islands and Shores / Debapriya Sarkar
6. Travellers / Josiah Blackmore
7. Representations / James Seth
8. Imaginary Worlds / Lowell Duckert
Volume 4: A Cultural History of the Sea in the Age of Enlightenment
Edited by Jonathan Lamb, Vanderbilt University, USA
1. Knowledges / Hanna Roman
2. Practices / Adam Miller
3. Networks / Anne M. Thell
4. Conflicts / David Taylor
5. Islands and Shores / Killian Quigley
6. Travellers / Jonathan Schroeder
7. Visualizations and Representations / Christopher Pinney
8. Imaginary Worlds / Margarette Lincoln
Volume 5: A Cultural History of the Sea in the Age of Empire
Edited by Margaret Cohen, Stanford University, USA
1. Knowledges / Natascha Adamowsky
2. Practices / Richard King
3. Networks / Siobhan Carroll
4. Conflicts / William Boelhower
5. Islands and Shores / Iain McCalman
6. Travellers / Adriana Craciun
7. Representations / Charne Lavery
8. Imaginary Worlds / Cannon Schmitt
Volume 6: A Cultural History of the Sea in the Global Age
Edited by Franziska Torma, Ludwig Maximilians University, Germany
1. Knowledges / Sabine Höhler
2. Practices / Colin Dewey
3. Networks / Johanna Sackel and Anna-Katharina Wöbse
4. Conflicts / Simone M. Müller
5. Islands and Shores / Rebecca Hofmann
6. Travellers / Helen M. Rozwadowski
7. Representations / Jon Crylen
8. Imaginary Worlds / Ariane Tanner
Margaret Cohen is Andrew B. Hammond Professor in French Language, Literature, and Civilization at Stanford University, USA, where she teaches in the Department of English, and by courtesy, in the Departments of French and Italian and of Comparative Literature. Her most recent book is The Novel and the Sea (2010), which was awarded the Louis R. Gottschalk Prize from the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and the George and Barbara Perkins Prize from the International Society for the Study of the Narrative.