To Master the Boundless Sea: The U.S. Navy, the Marine Environment, and the Cartography of Empire

by Jason W. Smith

Overview

As the United States grew into an empire in the late nineteenth century, notions like "sea power" derived not only from fleets, bases, and decisive battles but also from a scientific effort to understand and master the ocean environment. Beginning in the early nineteenth century and concluding in the first years of the twentieth, Jason W. Smith tells the story of the rise of the U.S. Navy and the emergence of American ocean empire through its struggle to control nature. In vividly told sketches of exploration, naval officers, war, and, most significantly, the ocean environment, Smith draws together insights from environmental, maritime, military, and naval history, and the history of science and cartography, placing the U.S. Navy's scientific efforts within a broader cultural context.

By recasting and deepening our understanding of the U.S. Navy and the United States at sea, Smith brings to the fore the overlooked work of naval hydrographers, surveyors, and cartographers. In the nautical chart's soundings, names, symbols, and embedded narratives, Smith recounts the largely untold story of a young nation looking to extend its power over the boundless sea.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469640457
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	04/13/2018
Series:	Flows, Migrations, and Exchanges
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	23 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jason W. Smith is assistant professor of history at Southern Connecticut State University.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Smith splices together, in a remarkably cogent and concise manner, a vast array of disparate genres recording the American maritime experience in the nineteenth century and offers an important corrective to how we define not just maritime history and nineteenth-century science, but also Americans' very experience venturing afield.—Matthew McKenzie, University of Connecticut

This is an impressive and original piece of scholarship, and I applaud the ambition. I don't know of any other work like it.—Kurk Dorsey, University of New Hampshire

This dramatic study of the scientific and cartographic currents that underlay American dominance on the world's oceans brings innovative perspectives and vivid prose to the environmental history of naval operations. Jason Smith describes how the U.S. Navy gradually came to understand the ecology of the oceans, despite the fact that the Navy's leadership often neglected the emerging science. This important study will appeal to both military and environmental historians, as well as the broader public interested in the global reach of American power."—Richard Tucker, University of Michigan

Jason Smith adds the ocean itself to naval history, revealing the tight yet underappreciated connection between American sea power and knowledge of the ocean throughout the U.S. Navy's 19th and 20th-century history.  Long before submarine warfare and beach landings drew the navy into a strong partnership with oceanography, the navy pursued science of the sea and employed technologies to investigate, represent, and attempt to control the ocean.  Knowing the ocean played an integral role in the navy's support of commerce and maritime enterprise in the 19th century, and continued at the turn of the century to provide a critical foundation for emerging military and strategic interests.  Alfred Thayer Mahan's famous theory of sea power, long recognized for shaping the expansionist American empire, rested on the notion that the ocean environment could be controlled strategically.  By putting the ocean at the center of this history and featuring the work of often invisible hydrographers and surveyors, Smith has prompted a reevaluation of the role of science in the US navy and the contribution of knowledge of the ocean to American expansion."—Helen Rozwadowski, University of Connecticut

Editorial Reviews

In this well-researched book, Smith examines the extension of American knowledge during the nineteenth century and focuses in particular on the American navy.—Journal of Military History

Any compelling book like To Master the Boundless Sea makes a reader wish for more: for more reference and comparison to the British empire, for instance. But Smith has already engaged with so many historiographies, and assembled such a rich argument and narrative, that To Master the Boundless Sea will benefit many historians grappling with American overseas empire, science, and the environment in the 19th century. The book deserves to be widely read.—Diplomatic History

Offers a new argument for the U.S. Navy's role in the pursuit and development of American empire . . . . Stands very usefully at the intersection of numerous fields of history: military history, naval history, the history of science, maritime history, and environmental history.—Diplomatic History

Impressive . . . . For scholars interested in early U.S. historical experience in the hydrographic and chart-making fields, this will be a good source of references. Full of useful research material, it should be in your library.—Naval History Magazine

A well-written and thought-provoking look at the US Navy during a long period of transition, one which questions—or at least reframes—several standard narratives. . . . Highly recommended.—International Journal of Maritime History

An engaging and thoughtful book—ambitious in its scope, creative in its organization, and masterful in its execution.—Isis Review

Smith aims to transcend earlier works and to 'find in the sea a thread that can tie together the often disparate fields of military, naval, and maritime history with environmental history and the history of science and cartography.'. . . To Master the Boundless Seas should be considered essential reading for all in the fields of naval, maritime, and oceanic history.—Sea History

Smith's well-written chapters combine historical facts and stories but also include engaging biographical sketches of the American scientists, naval officers, and sailors who cataloged the environmental conditions of the sea. Through these narratives, Smith shows how the hydrography and cartography of both deep-sea and coastal environments remained critical activities before, during, and after the Spanish-American War.—Journal of American History

"The main strength of To Master the Boundless Sea is the new perspective it provides on the topic of naval exploration. The book sits at a crossroads of naval, environmental, and scienti&64257;c history . . . telling a story about how American imperialism drew the United States into militarisation of the environment.—Journal for Maritime Research

Well worth a read for anyone who has an interest in empire, mapping, oceanography, or the navy. It elegantly and coherently lays out the complicated lives of charts and surveys, adding a needed layer of complexity to a simple narrative of oceanic empire.—H-Net Reviews

From the Publisher