Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories
by Simon Winchester
Harper, 2010
Comments: This is another excellent tome from the prolific Simon Winchester. In this sweeping work he attempts to tell a complete natural history of the Atlantic Ocean, from its geologic beginning to its ultimate evolutionary end, with particular focus on its relationship to human history. He uses Shakespeare's poetic notion of the seven ages of man from As Your Like It as a conceptual framework to organize the material into loosely related increments, such as the histories of the Atlantic's natural evolution, human exploration, military conflict, commercial exploitation, and pollution, among others. The author professes to have a long, intimate relationship with the ocean and for much of his life has has apparently been gathering material for this story through his frequent travels.
Winchester is a very accomplished storyteller and is able to organize what might seem an excessively broad subject into a coherent and enjoyable exploration of the ocean's under-appreciated history. Virtually from our beginning as a species the Atlantic Ocean has challenged humankind to ponder its nature. It has clearly impacted our evolution and history in profound ways. This story artfully captures much of the triumph and tragedy of that relationship, and leaves one in awe of just how powerful and complex the drama has been. Among other things, it's an affecting reminder of how our experience of the world is thoroughly shaped by the almost unimaginable forces of nature.
Copy Notes: Hardback, first edition, illustrations, photographs, and maps
