The Sea and Civilization

A Maritime History of the World

By: Lincoln Paine

Narrated by: Tom Perkins

A monumental retelling of world history through the lens of maritime enterprise, revealing in breathtaking depth how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, lake and stream, and how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world's waterways, bringing together civilizations and defining what makes us most human.

Lincoln Paine takes us back to the origins of long-distance migration by sea with our ancestors' first forays from Africa and Eurasia to Australia and the Americas. He demonstrates the critical role of maritime trade to the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley. He reacquaints us with the great seafaring cultures of antiquity like those of the Phoenicians and Greeks as well as those of India and Southeast and East Asia, who parlayed their navigational skills, shipbuilding techniques, and commercial acumen to establish thriving overseas colonies and trade routes in the centuries leading up to the age of European expansion. And finally, his narrative traces how commercial shipping and naval warfare brought about the enormous demographic, cultural, and political changes that have globalized the world throughout the post-Cold War era.

©2013 Lincoln Paine (P)2018 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Paine's highly detailed work encompasses a wide array of topics, from trade and the influence of the sea on warfare and political coalitions, to ship building techniques through the ages, to piracy and slavery.... Paine has compiled an invaluable resource for salty dogs and land-lubbers alike." ( Publishers Weekly)

I loved this book

Pirates seeded the genetic world of today. Recent, superior authors of this thinking, and I, are so pleased with this all encompassing history. Many books should come from this one. I have not found a similar full account.
Sea economics on earth in Charles McCoy's, To Govern the Globe, is elegant, if sparse. World Orders and Empires become clear in his book. Per Mr McCoy up until recently a book using the word EMPIRE wouldn't be published in USA...Dulles brothers no doubt.

Decent overview

the ancient history is priceless but the new needs more attention, thoroughly enjoyed it and definitely reccomend it as a primer!

Comprehensive

Paine lays down an important history of the world through the civilizational glue that is the sea. Recommend.

I was looking for a wide scope but still detailed history of maritime history and that’s exactly what I got.

I found this to be well narrated for a historical audio book in both voice and cadence and the author maintained a good balance between both broad concepts back by specific detail and dry facts/statistics and interesting anecdotes. I feel like I both enjoyed it and got a lot of knowledge out of it.

Scholarly but uninspiring history

Paine performs an excellent work of scholarship laying the groundwork of maritime history, but fails to deliver either on the commonalities of seagoing across civilizations or to condense his work into a strong and interesting thesis. This is where the book falls short of Silk Roads or Mike Duncan’s Revolutions Podcast that feel more like they have something they want to put forward.