- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
Other sellers (Hardcover)
-
All (16) from $32.90
-
New (9) from $44.78
-
Used (7) from $32.90
More About This Textbook
Overview
This innovative book examines how, between 1640 and 1815, the Portuguese Madeira wine trade shaped the Atlantic world and American society. David Hancock painstakingly reconstructs the lives of producers, distributors, and consumers, as well as the economic and social structures created by globalizing commerce, to reveal an intricate interplay between individuals and market forces. Wine lovers and Madeira enthusiasts will enjoy Oceans of Wine, as will historians interested in food, colonial trade, and the history of the Atlantic region.
Using voluminous archives pertaining to wine, many of them previously unexamined, Hancock offers a dramatic new perspective on the economic and social development of the Atlantic world by challenging traditional interpretations that have identified states and empires as the driving force behind trade. He demonstrates convincingly just how decentralized the early modern commercial system was, as well as how self-organized, a system that emerged from the actions of market participants working across imperial lines. The networks they formed began as commercial structures and expanded into social and political systems that were conduits not only for wine but also for ideas about reform, revolution, and independence.
Editorial Reviews
American Historical Review
"Oceans of Wine celebrates human sociability and ingenuity, not least Hancock''s skill in viscerally recreating eighteenth-century elite society."--American Historical Review
Gourmand World Cookbook
Winner of the 2009 Gourmand World Cookbook Award in the Best Book of European Wine category
— Best Book of European Wine
William & Mary Quarterly
". . . a detailed and richly textured narrative. . . . Oceans of Wine breaks new ground [and] pioneers a new approach to Atlantic history."--William & Mary Quarterly
Library Journal
In this expansive, well-researched work from the interdisciplinary field of Atlantic history, Hancock (history, Univ. of Michigan, Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735–1785) focuses on the commodity of Madeira in an effort to explain how producers, distributers, and consumers in the long 18th century used global trade networks, constructed through negotiation and "conversation" to transcend artificial barriers constructed by central authorities. These "self-organized" networks in turn facilitated the transfer of cultural, economic, and political information across international borders. Expanding upon the historical methodologies of T.H. Breen's Marketplace of Revolution, Bernard Bailyn's Atlantic History: Concept and Contours, and Richard S. Dunn's earlier Sugar and Slaves, Hancock admirably uses a wealth of previously unexplored primary documents to reconstruct this dynamic world. His book ranges from the production of Madeira on the Portuguese island to a detailed analysis of how consumers in both the urban centers and backcountry wilds of America developed a socially stratified world defined by the "gentility of drinking." VERDICT While the work's scholarly tone may limit its potential audience, students and scholars across the academic spectrum as well as wine enthusiasts will benefit from Hancock's monumental study. Highly recommended.—Brian Odom, Pelham P.L., ALProduct Details
Meet the Author
David Hancock is professor of history, University of Michigan. He is the author of Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 17351785, The Letters of William Freeman, 16781685, and History of World Trade since 1450.