The Great Sea by David Abulafia

The Great Sea by David Abulafia

SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR For over three thousand years, the Mediterranean Sea has been one of the great centres of world civilisation. From the time of historical Troy until the middle of the nineteenth century, human activity here decisively shaped much of the course of world history. David Abulafia's The Great Sea is the first complete history of the Mediterranean from the erection of the mysterious temples on Malta around 3500 BC to the recent reinvention of the Mediterranean's shores as a tourist destination. Part of the argument of Abulafia's book is that the great port cities - Alexandria, Trieste and Salonika and many others - prospered in part because of their ability to allow many different peoples, religions and identities to co-exist within sometimes very confined spaces. He also brilliantly populates his history with identifiable individuals whose lives illustrate with great immediacy the wider developments he is describing. The Great Sea ranges stupendously across time and the whole extraordinary space of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Jaffa, Venice to Alexandria. Rather than imposing a false unity on the sea and the teeming human activity it has sustained, the book emphasises diversity - ethnic, linguistic, religious and political. Anyone who reads it will leave it with their understanding of those societies and their histories enormously enriched.

The greatest living historian of the Mediterranean -- Andrew Roberts
A towering achievementNo review can really do justice to the scale of Abulafia's achievement: in its epic sweep, eye for detail and lucid style. -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *
Brocaded with studious observation and finely-tuned scholarship, the overall effect is mesmerising. -- Ian Thomson * Independent *
A memorable study, its scholarship tinged with indulgent humour and an authorial eye for bizarre detail. -- Jonathan Keates * Sunday Telegraph *
The story is teeming with colourful characters, and Abulafia wears his scholarship lightly, even dashingly. -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * Financial Times *

David Abulafia is Professor of Mediterranean History at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, and was until recently Chairman of the Cambridge History Faculty. His previous books include Frederick II and The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms. He is a member of the Academia Europaea, and in 2003 was made Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella della Solidarieta Italiana in recognition of his work on Italian and Mediterranean history.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780713999341
ISBN 10	0713999349
Title	The Great Sea
Author	David Abulafia
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Penguin Books Ltd
Year published	2011-05-05
Number of pages	816
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable