The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans

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He became a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College in 1974, was appointed to his first Faculty post in 1978, and was Professor of Mediterranean History, 2000-2017. The Boundless Sea is a work of immense scholarship, a forensic tribute to human enterprise. ... After reading this book your horizons will be wonderfully expanded, and you'll be as eager as the Ancient Mariner to retell its stories... Abulafia's masterpiece has the potential to alter the way we understand the human story and our place within it." - Horatio Clare, Spectator Horden, P., ‘Mediterranean Excuses: Historical Writing on the Mediterranean since Braudel’, History and Anthropology, 16 (2005), 25-30.

Madeira producing over 1 million kilograms of sugar in the 15th century and offered hardwood for shipbuilding. His grasp of the material is not so much encyclopaedic as breathtaking ... this is a tour de force. Writing history on this scale is challenging and enormously impressive; the author deserves applause for a magisterial achievement. (Peter Frankopan Sunday Times) From the beginning of history to the present, a sweep of the world's oceans and seas and how they have shaped the course of civilization. Horden, P., ‘Situations Both Alike?: Connectivity, the Mediterranean, the Sahara’, in J. McDougall and J. Scheele (eds), Saharan Frontiers: Space and Mobility in Northwest Africa (Bloomington, IN., 2012), 25-38. When examining the United States’ imperial ambitions of the 19th century, scholars are immediately drawn to the romanticized history of Manifest Destiny and the pioneers’ virtuous determination to expand across North America “from sea to shining sea.”[1] In his new and seminal work, Jason W. Smith—2019 recipient of the John Lyman Book Award in naval and maritime science and technology—offers a wider lens of U.S. expansionism and a revival of 19th century American predetermination. To Master the Boundless Sea draws on maritime, environmental, social history, and the history of naval science to highlight those who helped chart the course for America’s expansionist goals. With today’s changing climates, rising sea levels, and shifting coastlines, Smith’s work is both timely and valuable for military strategists and policy makers when facing challenges concerning the open seas, littoral zones, and brown waterways affecting naval operations and the future of America’s global influence.All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Shaw, B. D., ‘Challenging Braudel: a new vision of the Mediterranean’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 14 (2001), 419-453. Norse settlers, first in the Faroe islands, then Iceland, then Greenland, and for a short time the Eastern Seaboard. Fascinating stories about the way they integrated into the Norwegian mainland, the legends duly recorded by medeival scribes, and their motivations for exploring West. In 1567 a friendly Tuvualan offered Spanish captain Álvaro de Mendaña the shoulder and arm of a child to eat (the hand was still attached). Mendaña’s horror is counterpointed by a gentle hint that inquisitorial immolations were equally unpalatable. Geopolitics

River tells Bertie that the stories of H. G. Wells about the stars are real. He thinks she means the one about the centre of the Earth. Like other Time Lords, River has an acute sense of smell. She notes by smell alone that there are no living or dead bodies in the tomb. ( PROSE: Wishing Well, Doctor Who and the Carnival of Monsters) River mistakenly believes Bertie is trying to court her and starts to rebuff him by saying she's a married woman. ( TV: The Wedding of River Song, The Angels Take Manhattan, The Husbands of River Song)Captain Cook’s ally Tupaia tried to reconcile Polynesian and European navigational notions, but ultimately he knew where islands were “because they had always been there”. Tupaia hadn’t heard of New Zealand or Hawai’i yet these had already been settled, although thousands of miles from other islands and, in the case of Hawai’i, under different stars. Global trade The English and Dutch East India Companies are still talked of but there was also a Danish one and a Swedish. Bertie complains that River refused to stop the car when his hat blew off and River replies, "Hats are overrated." She has previously shown contempt towards the Eleventh Doctor's fez ( TV: The Big Bang) and Stetson. ( TV: The Impossible Astronaut)