Britain and the Sea: Since 1600

by Glen O'Hara

Overview

O'Hara presents the first general history of Britons' relationship with the surrounding oceans from 1600 to the present day. This all-encompassing account covers individual seafarers, ship-borne migration, warfare and the maritime economy, as well as the British people's maritime ideas and self perception throughout the centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230218291
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/17/2010
Edition description:	2010
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

GLEN O'HARA is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at Oxford Brookes University, UK. He is the author of From Dreams to Disillusionment: Economic and Social Planning in 1960s Britain (Palgrave 2006) and co-author of The Modernisation of Britain? Harold Wilson and the British Labour Governments of 1964-1970.
GLEN O'HARA is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at Oxford Brookes University, UK. He is the author of From Dreams to Disillusionment: Economic and Social Planning in 1960s Britain (Palgrave 2006) and co-author of The Modernisation of Britain? Harold Wilson and the British Labour Governments of 1964-1970.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements viii

1 Histories 1

Part I The Flowing Tide

2 Merchants 13

3 Renegades 40

4 Slavers 65

5 Migrants 84

6 Warriors 107

Part II The Ebbing Tide

7 Victories? 135

8 Immigrants 162

9 Collapse 184

10 Afterglow 211

11 Conclusion: A Star to Steer By? 237

Notes 244

Bibliography of works cited 291

Index 326

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Chosen as Professor Andrew Lambert's top History book of 2010 in BBC History Magazine's Christmas edition:

http://publicpolicypast.blogspot.com/2010/12/good-reviews-cheer-me-up.html

'Glen O'Hara has brought his rigorous historical intellect to bear on one of the biggest and most important actors in British economic, social and cultural history: the sea that surrounds these islands. Even the most incorrigible landlubber will be educated and fascinated by this rich and original book.' - Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University, and author of Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World

'...valiant and successful...' - The Scotsman

'Ours is an island story, it's always said – but our chroniclers haven't generally attempted to think through what that might have meant for British history as a whole. The implications have, of course, been far too complex to be captured in a single study, but Glen O'Hara makes a valiant – and surprisingly successful – try. Here, we find everything from fishing to the Falklands War; from Raleigh's explorations to the rise of the seaside resort. Not just North Sea Oil but the South Sea Bubble; not just the Battle of Trafalgar but the slave trade. If Britannia's ruled the waves, he finds, the converse has also been true: the sea has made Britain – and her people – what they are.' - The Scotsman

'This book may not cure the deep , endemic historical malaise of maritime myopia , but it does offer a powerful , economical remedy for anyone willing to risk the treatment.' - BBC History Magazine

'[O'Hara's]creative synthesis brings together much of what is best in recent scholarship with wider academic concerns to provide a holistic approach to an oceanic nation...this text demands that all historians of Britain, whatever their specialisation, must reconsider the place of the sea. The impressive scholarly apparatus demonstrates a substantial engagement with the literature, and provides a fine guide to anyone essaying a new avenue of research.' - English Historical Review