The Boundless Sea

A Human History of the Oceans

By: David Abulafia

Narrated by: Nigel Patterson

From the author of the acclaimed The Great Sea, David Abulafia's new book guides listeners along the world's greatest bodies of water to reveal their primary role in human history. The main protagonists are the three major oceans - the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian - which together comprise the majority of the earth's water and cover over half of its surface. These waterways carried goods, plants, livestock, and, of course people - free and enslaved - across vast expanses, transforming and ultimately linking irrevocably the economies and cultures of Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Far more than merely another history of exploration, The Boundless Sea tells how maritime networks gradually formed a continuum of interaction and interconnection. Working chronologically, Abulafia moves from the earliest forays of peoples taking hand-hewn canoes into uncharted waters, to the routes taken daily by supertankers in the thousands. History on the grandest scale and scope, crafted with passion and precision, this is a project few could have undertaken. Abulafia, whom The Atlantic calls "superb writer with a gift for lucid compression and an eye for the telling detail", proves again why he ranks as one of the world's greatest storytellers.

©2019 David Abulafia (P)2021 Tantor

An undeniable wealth of history…

A must read treasure that opens the pages of factual well documented maritime history. There is a wondrous sense of being submerged in the birth of each sea wave as it reveals the history that unfolds the extraordinary life events of the beginnings man’s evolution love affair with earths boundless sea adventures…

Maritime trade around the world

I really enjoyed this book. Very good history of maritime trade around the world. Or at least what can be shoved into several hours of listening.

The author made maritime trade history seem interesting, which it is.

JK

This is a most amazing book. I HIGHLY recommend this book and his earlier book "The Great Sea", a human history of the Mediterranean"
The narrator Nigel Patterson is excellent. Thank you so much for the many hours of entertainment.

Finally, economics and culture

Excellent book that, finally, is a global history placing economics and culture, rather than politics and military adventures, at the forefront of. Also a truly global focus, not just European.

A lot of history that gets missed.

Sold history covering a long time and making connections that you might not otherwise get.