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The Boundless Sea

A Human History of the Oceans

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The Boundless Sea

By: David Abulafia
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the award-winning author of The Great Sea, a magnificent new global history of the oceans and of humankind's relationship with the sea.

For most of human history, the seas and oceans have been the main means of long-distance trade and communication between peoples - for the spread of ideas and religion as well as commerce. This book traces the history of human movement and interaction around and across the world's greatest bodies of water, charting our relationship with the oceans from the time of the first voyagers. David Abulafia begins with the earliest of seafaring societies - the Polynesians of the Pacific, the possessors of intuitive navigational skills long before the invention of the compass, who by the first century were trading between their far-flung islands.

By the seventh century, trading routes stretched from the coasts of Arabia and Africa to southern China and Japan, bringing together the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific and linking half the world through the international spice trade. In the Atlantic, centuries before the little kingdom of Portugal carved out its powerful, seaborne empire, many peoples sought new lands across the sea - the Bretons, the Frisians and, most notably, the Vikings, now known to be the first Europeans to reach North America. As Portuguese supremacy dwindled in the late 16th century, the Spanish, the Dutch and then the British each successively ruled the waves.

Following merchants, explorers, pirates, cartographers and travellers in their quests for spices, gold, ivory, slaves, lands for settlement and knowledge of what lay beyond, Abulafia has created an extraordinary narrative of humanity and the oceans.

From the earliest forays of peoples in hand-hewn canoes through uncharted waters to the routes now taken daily by supertankers in their thousands, The Boundless Sea shows how maritime networks came to form a continuum of interaction and interconnection across the globe: 90 per cent of global trade is still conducted by sea. This is history of the grandest scale and scope, and from a bracingly different perspective - not, as in most global histories, from the land but from the boundless seas.

©2019 David Abulafia (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Maritime History & Piracy Portugal Imperialism Viking Royalty Pirate

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Great

apart from few miss pronunciations by narrator, its a great research and great listen. Good portion on the Lapita people of Polynesian.Recommended for all

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Tremendous Book

41 hours the longest book I have ever listened to.
It was an exceptional tale beautifully written and beautifully spoken.
It's just such a great story, how the sea shaped all our lives.
Great history that we should all be aware of. I highly recommend this fantastic book.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.