The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World

by Lincoln Paine Narrated by Tom Perkins

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 09/09/2013
Even though the Earth’s surface is 70% water, historical narratives are usually land-centered. Paine (Ships of the World) shifts emphasis from land to water in order to correct this imbalance, an approach that takes the reader through history via the seas. He devises a chronological spiral around the world, starting with a recounting of ancient times, before covering the same areas in medieval times, and so on up to the modern era. 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. Of particular interest are the intricate alliances and shifting loyalties of ancient Mediterranean cultures, the outsized role of the relatively tiny Spice Islands, the impact the Vikings had on cultural exchange across coastal Europe, and the influence of religion on areas as diverse as trade and maritime law. Readers expecting a naval history will receive much more: a thorough history of the people, the ports, and the cultural activity taking place on the water. Paine has compiled an invaluable resource for salty dogs and land-lubbers alike. Photos, illus., & maps. Agent: John Wright, John Wright Literary Agency. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

Superbly realized. . . . Elegantly written and encyclopedic in scope. [A] forceful reminder that the urge to ‘go down to the sea in ships’ has shaped civilizations and cultures in every period and in every part of the globe.” —The Wall Street Journal

“The Sea and Civilization is, without doubt, the most comprehensive maritime history ever produced. . . . An all-consuming vision oozes from Paine’s book. His passion is to tell the story of the sea. History is seldom written with that kind of passion today.” —The Times (London) 

 “The most enjoyable, the most refreshing, the most stimulating, the most comprehensive, the most discerning, the most insightful, the most up-to-date—in short, the best maritime history of the world.” —Felipe Fernández-Armesto, author of Millennium: A History of the Last Thousand Years

 “Here is a story told with assurance and a refreshing perspective. . . . A bracing journey.” —The Dallas Morning News

A Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title Selection, 2014

 “Fascinating and beautifully written. . . . An eloquent vision of how the sea served as a path to the modern world.” —Foreign Affairs

 “Paine is full of such illuminating facts. . . . [He] forestalls any western bias with excellent chapters on Asian expansion. . . . ‘The sea held no promise for slaves, coolies, indentured servants, or the dispossessed,’ Paine reminds us, and while it is ‘fickle and unforgiving, it is a fragile environment susceptible to human depredation on a scale unimaginable to our ancestors.’ And yet, whose heart does not sing out when they see the sea? Our last resort, it still holds its promise and its power.” —New Statesman (London)

“A magnificently sweeping world history that takes us from the people of Oceania and concludes with the container. In contrast to most books on maritime history, the majority of The Sea and Civilization covers the history of the world before Columbus sailed the ocean blue and at least as much of the narrative focuses on Asia as it does on Europe.” —The Telegraph (London)

“An ambitious work. . . . Dense with facts and rich in detail that tells mankind’s story from the perspective of our relation to the seas—as well as lakes, rivers and canals.” —Asian Review of Books 

“Brilliantly realized. . . . we have at last a responsible and persuasive explanation of the inextricable connection between the ocean and world civilization.” —Peter Neill, World Ocean Observatory

“Takes the reader through history via the seas . . . 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, starred review

“Paine deftly navigates the complexities of global culture to create an eminently readable account of mankind’s relationship to the sea. Both profound and amusing, this will be a standard source for decades to come.” —Josh Smith, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, editor of Voyages
  
“The Sea and Civilization presents a fresh look at the global past. Bringing to bear a formidable knowledge of ships and sails, winds and currents, navigation techniques and maritime law, Lincoln Paine offers a lively tour of world history as seen from the waterline. The result is a fascinating account, full of little-known episodes and novel insights. A major contribution.”  —Kären Wigen, Stanford University, author of A Malleable Map

"Paine's a lyrical stylist, and the breadth of his historical vision is extraordinary." —David Mitchell, GQ

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"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 Starred Review

Kirkus Reviews

2013-09-15
A sprawling, readable history of the world from the sailor's point of view--and not just on the oceans of the world, but also its lakes and rivers. Maine-based maritime historian Paine (Down East: A Maritime History of Maine, 2000, etc.) takes a broad view of his subject, beginning in deepest antiquity: "It is impossible to know who first set themselves adrift in saltwater or fresh and for what reason, but once launched our ancestors never looked back." Indeed, the Americas might have been first peopled by migrants traveling not via a land bridge but by boat, while the shipbuilding industry as such is at least 4,000 years old, represented by a site on the Strait of Hormuz at which ship hulls were found made of reeds, mats and animal skins "coated with a bitumen amalgam." Many of the great historical maritime episodes figure in Paine's pages, from Salamis to the Columbian crossings--including the fourth, after which, to Columbus' shame, he was stripped of titles and land, "bitter that licenses were now being issued to others to sail to Hispaniola." The author does a fine job of educing a-ha moments from his material, as when he notes the importance of river and sea travel in America's westward expansion and accounts for the lopsided British victory at Trafalgar by noting that the Royal Navy "had cultivated a psychological advantage based on a belief that the point of battle was to attack." Fittingly, recurrent themes include the sea as a medium for spreading not just trade, but also ideology, as with the Muslim conquest of much of the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages and subsequent spread of Islam. With so large and diffuse a book, Paine skips over a few things and heavily condenses others; his account of the rise of containerization, which has had so profound an effect on international trade, merits far more than the few pages allowed for it. A lucid, well-written survey that covers a lot of ground--well, of fathoms.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170444748
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	01/24/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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Introduction
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Excerpted from "The Sea and Civilization"
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