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Ocean: A History of the Atlantic Before Columbus
A magisterial cultural history of the Atlantic Ocean before Columbus, ranging from the early shaping of the continents and the emergence of homo sapiens to the story of shipbuilding, navigation, maritime exploration, slavery, and nascent European imperialism.
A dazzling and ambitious history of the pre-Columbian Atlantic seas, Ocean is a story that begins with the formation of the mid-Atlantic ridge some 200 million years ago and ends with the Castilian conquest of the Canary Islands in the fifteenth century, providing a template for the methods used by the Spanish in their colonization of the New World. John Haywood eloquently argues that the perception of Atlantic history beginning with the first voyage of the celebrated Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus is a mistaken one, and that the seafaring and shipbuilding skills that enabled European global exploration and expansion did not arrive fully formed in the fifteenth century, but instead were learned over centuries and millennia in the Atlantic and its peripheral seas. The pre-Columbian history of the Atlantic is the story of how Europeans learned to master the oceans. This story is, therefore, key to understanding why it was Europeans, and not any of the world's other seafaring peoples, who “discovered” the world. Informed by the author's extensive travels in and around the Atlantic Ocean, crossing Newfoundland's Grand Banks, the Sea of Darkness, and the weed-covered Sargasso Sea to make landfall at locations as diverse as Vinland, Greenland, the Faroes, and the Cape Verde Islands, and populated by a heterogeneous and multi-ethnic cast of seafarers, fishermen, monks, merchants, and dreamers, Ocean is an in-depth history of a neglected subject, fusing geology, geography, mythology developing maritime technologies, and the early history of exploration to narrate an enthralling and intriguing story—one which lies at the very heart of Europe's modern history and its relationship with the rest of the world.
A dazzling and ambitious history of the pre-Columbian Atlantic seas, Ocean is a story that begins with the formation of the mid-Atlantic ridge some 200 million years ago and ends with the Castilian conquest of the Canary Islands in the fifteenth century, providing a template for the methods used by the Spanish in their colonization of the New World. John Haywood eloquently argues that the perception of Atlantic history beginning with the first voyage of the celebrated Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus is a mistaken one, and that the seafaring and shipbuilding skills that enabled European global exploration and expansion did not arrive fully formed in the fifteenth century, but instead were learned over centuries and millennia in the Atlantic and its peripheral seas. The pre-Columbian history of the Atlantic is the story of how Europeans learned to master the oceans. This story is, therefore, key to understanding why it was Europeans, and not any of the world's other seafaring peoples, who “discovered” the world. Informed by the author's extensive travels in and around the Atlantic Ocean, crossing Newfoundland's Grand Banks, the Sea of Darkness, and the weed-covered Sargasso Sea to make landfall at locations as diverse as Vinland, Greenland, the Faroes, and the Cape Verde Islands, and populated by a heterogeneous and multi-ethnic cast of seafarers, fishermen, monks, merchants, and dreamers, Ocean is an in-depth history of a neglected subject, fusing geology, geography, mythology developing maritime technologies, and the early history of exploration to narrate an enthralling and intriguing story—one which lies at the very heart of Europe's modern history and its relationship with the rest of the world.
560 pages, Hardcover
First published September 12, 2024
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920 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
July 14, 2025
I have lived most of my adult life within 100 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. For almost three years, I worked in an office within two blocks of the Atlantic City Boardwalk. At various times over the past 70 years, I have considered myself to be familiar with almost every oceanside community on the US Atlantic coast from Brigantine, NJ to Myrtle Beach, SC. To me, the Atlantic Ocean has always been a whole lot of water conveniently located near population centers, allowing millions of people to lay on the beach, frolic in the waves, gawk at each other's minimal swim attire, and generally enjoy themselves during the summer. Aside from the occasional hurricane and the odd beached whale, its associations have always been positive.
In this book, John Haywood looks at the relation between the ocean and humanity in much greater depth (pun optional). As a non-aquatic species, homo sapiens was long averse to large bodies of water and Haywood essentially presents a narrative of humanity gradually becoming familiar with the Atlantic and learning to exploit its resources and use it as an aid to long-distance transport.
The author makes many interesting points in his narrative and there are two that especially caught my attention. When humans began migrating out of Africa, some went east and some went west. Those going west quickly ran up against the barrier of the Atlantic Ocean. Although it took longer, more than ten thousand years ago those going eastward ran into the same Atlantic barrier, but from the other side. It was not until the eleventh century when Norsemen found their way to the Canadian Maritimes that the two migratory streams met and completed our species' circumnavigation of the planet.
It has long been conventional wisdom that Columbus was a lonely voice in the fifteenth century claiming that the world was round. The author presents many examples going back to ancient Greece to show that the spherical nature of the world had long been accepted by academics and mariners in many societies. He notes that several other 15th century Europeans tried to sail west to reach Asia, but failed for reasons other than falling off the edge. The author blames these misconceptions on Washington Irving. Yes; that Washington Irving. It turns out that the guy who gave us Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane also wrote a biography of Columbus in the early 19th century. In his narrative Irving greatly exaggerated contemporary belief in the flat earth in order to make Columbus appear a more iconoclastic and heroic figure. It worked.
Somewhat understandably, a lot of this book is about boats and fish. If you have an aversion to either, you may want to go in another direction.
In this book, John Haywood looks at the relation between the ocean and humanity in much greater depth (pun optional). As a non-aquatic species, homo sapiens was long averse to large bodies of water and Haywood essentially presents a narrative of humanity gradually becoming familiar with the Atlantic and learning to exploit its resources and use it as an aid to long-distance transport.
The author makes many interesting points in his narrative and there are two that especially caught my attention. When humans began migrating out of Africa, some went east and some went west. Those going west quickly ran up against the barrier of the Atlantic Ocean. Although it took longer, more than ten thousand years ago those going eastward ran into the same Atlantic barrier, but from the other side. It was not until the eleventh century when Norsemen found their way to the Canadian Maritimes that the two migratory streams met and completed our species' circumnavigation of the planet.
It has long been conventional wisdom that Columbus was a lonely voice in the fifteenth century claiming that the world was round. The author presents many examples going back to ancient Greece to show that the spherical nature of the world had long been accepted by academics and mariners in many societies. He notes that several other 15th century Europeans tried to sail west to reach Asia, but failed for reasons other than falling off the edge. The author blames these misconceptions on Washington Irving. Yes; that Washington Irving. It turns out that the guy who gave us Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane also wrote a biography of Columbus in the early 19th century. In his narrative Irving greatly exaggerated contemporary belief in the flat earth in order to make Columbus appear a more iconoclastic and heroic figure. It worked.
Somewhat understandably, a lot of this book is about boats and fish. If you have an aversion to either, you may want to go in another direction.
September 29, 2024
Reading this book took me a long time because every page is filled with something interesting worth remembering and I didn`t want to miss it. I have highlighted about half of the book. Oops...
The history of human connection with the open waters is fascinating. There are a lot of interesting facts that aren`t commonly known, such as the plague (Black Death) originated in northern Kyrgyzstan around 1338. Have you ever heard of a condition called "rabbit starvation"? Me neither, it's protein poisoning, it happens when one doesn't eat enough carbs. The first colonies that we know of belonged to Phenicians in the ancient world, so badmouthing medieval Europeans is not 100% justified, they weren't the first. The same goes for slavery, but modern Americans have their own view of the matter and won`t listen to the historians.
This book made me laugh, made me think, and gave me a "what?!" moment. Brilliant!
The history of human connection with the open waters is fascinating. There are a lot of interesting facts that aren`t commonly known, such as the plague (Black Death) originated in northern Kyrgyzstan around 1338. Have you ever heard of a condition called "rabbit starvation"? Me neither, it's protein poisoning, it happens when one doesn't eat enough carbs. The first colonies that we know of belonged to Phenicians in the ancient world, so badmouthing medieval Europeans is not 100% justified, they weren't the first. The same goes for slavery, but modern Americans have their own view of the matter and won`t listen to the historians.
This book made me laugh, made me think, and gave me a "what?!" moment. Brilliant!
May 29, 2025
Fascinating story of how humans interacted with the Atlantic Ocean before the year 1492, beginning with archaeological evidence from prehistory. It’s all about fishing, trade and struggle. Struggle to survive, control trade routes, and learn to master wind, ocean currents, and the hazards of living at sea.
March 21, 2025
In Ocean, historian and prolific writer John Haywood tells a fairly comprehensive (560 page book/18 hour audiobook) story of how (largely) Europeans interacted with the Atlantic Ocean in the centuries leading up to Columbus' 1492 crossing. Consistent with his prior books and research foci on the Vikings and Celts, much of the book discusses...the Vikings and Celts. I may not have picked up this book had I realized this, as I've already read many excellent works on the Vikings (see further reading below). I was relieved when I came to the end of this book, as it can be very dense (not unlike a textbook) and slow-moving (pun intended).
Further reading: pre-Columbian European history
Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price
River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Road by Cat Jarman
Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World by Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir
The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began by Valerie Hansen
My statistics:
Book 88 for 2025
Book 2014 cumulatively
Further reading: pre-Columbian European history
Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price
River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Road by Cat Jarman
Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World by Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir
The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began by Valerie Hansen
My statistics:
Book 88 for 2025
Book 2014 cumulatively
July 22, 2025
'Ocean: A History of the Atlantic Before Columbus' is a fascinating read! A massive amount of information is crammed into a quite readable format along with some neat maps and photos. Wish that I had my own copy! I liked that each chapter had a list of the sub-chapter subject titles, a handy summary. Haywood has an impressive number of books on his resume on related subjects including at least 8 or 9 atlases--Vikings, Ancient World, Celtic World, Classical World and others. So he is very geospatially aware! And ultimately the history of Atlantic exploration came down to understanding and conquering that space. It is a compelling story of seafaring pioneers--Irish monks, Norse settlers, Viking raiders, long-distance traders and numerous fishermen (Celts, Norse, British, Dutch, German, Basque and others), few of whom seemed primarily driven by exploration. A notable exception was the Greek geographer Pytheas of Massilia (Marseille) who in 325 BC apparently sailed to the North Atlantic reaching Britain and supposedly the edges of the Arctic ice pack, just because. Even his written account was lost and the story patched together from other sources. Literacy of some type is required to tell this story.
To the clowns who complain in their reviews about this book being too 'Eurocentric' or not 'global' enough please go back to reading the Berenstain Bears. Firstly, a book about the Atlantic is not going to be about the entire globe, that would seem obvious. Yet he constantly provides the status of mapping efforts of the known world at least from places that surrounded the Atlantic basin, as comical as some might appear in our own rear views. No, he does not attempt to unravel what the Chinese were thinking about the Atlantic Ocean but it hardly seems necessary, but they were not actually thinking about it at all. Secondly and more important, essentially all the non-European peoples bordering the Atlantic in many the centuries preceding 1492--all of South, Central and North America and all of sub-Saharan Africa (aside from where Arabic had penetrated) had essentially no written language (with minor exceptions) and few or no written histories. Yes, these people existed but if they were exploring or mapping the Atlantic, the evidence is essentially non-existent. It was a complex and multifaceted problem--shipbuilding, navigation, commerce, mariners logs, written accounts and even legends compiled painstakingly over centuries. He does include the contributions of Islamic scholars and sailors, their written histories and accounts and provides a reasonable explanation for their reluctance to fully explore the unknown Atlantic (they really had no need). The rest of the Atlantic basin societies were either fully or partially Stone Age (Neolithic) cultures. So just how is one to write a non 'Eurocentric' account for the sake of 'inclusivity' with next to zero information? Where possible however he discusses Ancient DNA (aDNA) analyses that can shed light on certain population dynamics with examples from these very modern techniques to infer things otherwise unknown.
An amusing anecdote also clears up the notion that Columbus was a 'flat earther' (or the Catholic Church for that matter). Haywood rather easily demolishes that distortion but amusingly the blame for much it belongs to Washington Irving (of Sleep Hollow fame) who wrote a popular 1828 biography of Columbus in which he introduced that bit of 'mis' or perhaps 'dis' information to enhance the drama of the story.
Just to clear up another frequent misconception--only the Norse can be credibly demonstrated to have reached the 'New' World (L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland) before Columbus, somewhere bewteen 990 and 1020 AD. That is of course except for the people who came the other way, via the Bering Strait and populated a hemisphere. Haywood points out (p. 11) that the encounter between those Norse settlers pushing west across the North Atlantic and the Inuit who were pushing east across the now Canadian Arctic was in fact a grand reunion. Paleolithic humans that emerged from Africa some 70,000 years ago generally split into two 'great branches'--Europe and Asia, and had their meeting at long last along those chilly coasts. A solid 4 stars, maybe just short of 4.5 where I might be forced to round up!
To the clowns who complain in their reviews about this book being too 'Eurocentric' or not 'global' enough please go back to reading the Berenstain Bears. Firstly, a book about the Atlantic is not going to be about the entire globe, that would seem obvious. Yet he constantly provides the status of mapping efforts of the known world at least from places that surrounded the Atlantic basin, as comical as some might appear in our own rear views. No, he does not attempt to unravel what the Chinese were thinking about the Atlantic Ocean but it hardly seems necessary, but they were not actually thinking about it at all. Secondly and more important, essentially all the non-European peoples bordering the Atlantic in many the centuries preceding 1492--all of South, Central and North America and all of sub-Saharan Africa (aside from where Arabic had penetrated) had essentially no written language (with minor exceptions) and few or no written histories. Yes, these people existed but if they were exploring or mapping the Atlantic, the evidence is essentially non-existent. It was a complex and multifaceted problem--shipbuilding, navigation, commerce, mariners logs, written accounts and even legends compiled painstakingly over centuries. He does include the contributions of Islamic scholars and sailors, their written histories and accounts and provides a reasonable explanation for their reluctance to fully explore the unknown Atlantic (they really had no need). The rest of the Atlantic basin societies were either fully or partially Stone Age (Neolithic) cultures. So just how is one to write a non 'Eurocentric' account for the sake of 'inclusivity' with next to zero information? Where possible however he discusses Ancient DNA (aDNA) analyses that can shed light on certain population dynamics with examples from these very modern techniques to infer things otherwise unknown.
An amusing anecdote also clears up the notion that Columbus was a 'flat earther' (or the Catholic Church for that matter). Haywood rather easily demolishes that distortion but amusingly the blame for much it belongs to Washington Irving (of Sleep Hollow fame) who wrote a popular 1828 biography of Columbus in which he introduced that bit of 'mis' or perhaps 'dis' information to enhance the drama of the story.
Just to clear up another frequent misconception--only the Norse can be credibly demonstrated to have reached the 'New' World (L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland) before Columbus, somewhere bewteen 990 and 1020 AD. That is of course except for the people who came the other way, via the Bering Strait and populated a hemisphere. Haywood points out (p. 11) that the encounter between those Norse settlers pushing west across the North Atlantic and the Inuit who were pushing east across the now Canadian Arctic was in fact a grand reunion. Paleolithic humans that emerged from Africa some 70,000 years ago generally split into two 'great branches'--Europe and Asia, and had their meeting at long last along those chilly coasts. A solid 4 stars, maybe just short of 4.5 where I might be forced to round up!
May 22, 2025
Pre 1492 world history at the end of the known world at the time. Learned a lot.
I need to eat more Herring Fish this book reminds me.
I need to eat more Herring Fish this book reminds me.
October 7, 2025
Continuing my reading theme of the year: history of single objects. The Atlantic Ocean. WOW!! Sam told me about this one, and he was certainly correct when he said I would love it. This book joins my love of anthropology, geography, culture, food and history. Loved it!
May 19, 2025
Every once in a while you come across an idea that sort of reshapes the way you see the world or think about the world. A couple of years ago I read a book, a kind of travelogue, that offered a philosophical observation regarding how we experience the world. Everyone is shaped by two essential qualities when it comes to the spaces we occupy- the space in which we live, and the space we are drawn to visit. There is something about the way we structure our lives that needs both of these things to be somehow different, but also in conversation. Equally a part of who we are.
Of course, there are lots of ways to break down the spaces in which we live. We typically inherit it, be it through birth or through opportunity. The space where we live becomes known through the liturgy of the ordinary every day, the traditions and routines and investments that anchor is in a "home." Part of what frees us to participate in this lived space is the necessary restlesness that a desire, a longing represents. That persistant draw to something other is what helps illuminate our lived space and inform it. It keeps where we are from being reduced to mundanity or meaninglessnes. It reminds us that we are part of a larger story.
The observation insisted that we all have this. In fact, we can apply this same concept in many different ways to the different facets of our lives. When it comes to the spaces we occupy however, it was not difficult for me to locate my draw. I long for the ocean. Not to be on it, but to be by it. For many people it is the mountains. For me the ocean is the antithesis of the mountains, In the beauty of the mountains, which yes, they are beautiful, my mind is constantly looking for a way out. It can't handle the feeling of clausterphobia. It feels restrictive and confining. At the ocean I find an invitation. To stand at the ocean front is to feel like the whole world is opened up. It invokes the imagination, for both the terror and the beauty. It embraces the sunrise and the sunsets like a cradle rather than, like the mountains, concealing it and blocking it out. And of course, knowing this is where I am drawn just opens up the constrast of where I live, landlocked in the center of the Canada, where the distance between me and the ocean on all sides couldn't be further. And yet, I love where I live. The embrace of my city's small time vibe. The simple pleasures of my favorite coffee shops and bookstores. The preserved turn of the century arcitecture that's practicatly in my backyard. The way the praries mimic the ocean's openness. My favorite drives. My neighborhood walks. But my love for where I live is also framed by the space to which I am drawn. When I go to the river, which is less than a 10 minute walk from my house, I long to be by the riverside, and that longing is framed by the lake from which it is drawn, a 40 minute drive from where I live. And that lake draws me to the bay, which draws me to the ocean. To drive the tanscanada in either direction is to know where it leads, to have it come alive in my mind. To look south is to find the great Mississippi river, a virtual symbol of this draw to the great emptying into the gulf.
There's another aspect of this for me too. When it comes to the ocean, the Atlantic inparticular has a special place in my imagination, as it holds together the history of civilization. Between its two sides we find the division of history that locates me where I am, and to cross it is to grasp that which roots this history in a singular story. Equally true is the restlessness I have long felt this side of the Atlantic between the worldview I inhereted from the enlightenment, a reductionist, materialist view of the world in which reality is reduced to scientific data, and the world that this view detached itself from, framed by a more expansive view of reality not reducible to mere data points. This is part of why I am drawn to imagine these spaces which haven't forgotten, in the ways the West often does, that we are shaped not by data, but by narrative.
This is a big part of what drew me to this book. It felt like a must own for me on both fronts. And the initial chapters helped me make sense of why. This is a book about bringing the prehistory of the Atlantics shaping to light. A preshistory that is shaped by narrative, by story. Narratives that find humanity on the shores of this mysterious place called the ocean and contemplating the true nature of this world against its chaos. It was an invitation to wonder, as the author says, and it is this wonder that drove people to broaden their view of the world. But, as the book equally draws out, this wonder meets with the hard reality of the enlightenments vision and interests when it arrives on the opposite shore. Here this wonder keeps getting reduced and reduced until this new space becomes the figurative "ends of the world." And not just the ends, but its percieved center. A center defined by progress. To have discovered the whole world gives way to mastering it as a resource. Not supriisingly, what this has unearthed is what we might call a crisis of meaning. Absent of wonder, what we have is a functional world absent of meaning. More and more, it seems what is happening now is people, figuratively speaking, are finding themselves back at that Atlantic shore looking back into the history of humanity, and indeed our world, and trying to recover those narratives that got left behind. Trying to recover that imagination.
The first portion of this book is all about bringing those myths to the surface. Those shared stories tied to the history of civilizaztion, helping us to see and understand the true shape of this world, this reality. Opening up our imaginations. And indeed, the first half of this book had me so hopeful, so enthralled. But then I hit the back half, and particularly the final quarter. This is where prehistory collides with modernity. And the further we get into this portion, the more I started to wonder abouit the hands this story had been placed into. After all, an enlightenment thinker will always and forever see history as necessarily driving towards what they see as the truth- the raitonalist west. Such a thinker will inevitably see the narratives of the past as the thing we are meant to let go of, a product of a more "religious" and more superstitious age, buitl on stuff that the modern world has done away with in favor of truth. It's just my opinion, but its improtant at the very least for such a thinker to be upfront about their interpretive biases as a historian. I don't think Haywood was. Given where the final chapter lands, I actually felt a bit decieved by the fact that Haywood is, indeed, playing to that enlightenment bias.
However, it was also possible for me to contextualize that when it came to my overall experience. I could take his information, and even portions where his own need and attempt to compartmentalize the world of narrative on his way to reducing it to scientific data, actually betrays the uncertainness of precisely what to do with this history. I could note his uncomfortableness with sitting inn these spaces, these stories, too long, which to me underscores their narrative power. Their refusal to let truth be reduced to something it is not. To me, this book reminded me about the profound nature of these "shared" stories, all anchored in a belief that something true exists. That simple belief is what keeps wonder as a key, guiding force of our ability to know and grow in knowledge. Something even Haywood accepts and notes.
Even at three out of five stars, this was a read that helped open up why I love the ocean, and inparticular why I love this particular ocean. It brought to life my longing, my desire, in a fresh way.
Of course, there are lots of ways to break down the spaces in which we live. We typically inherit it, be it through birth or through opportunity. The space where we live becomes known through the liturgy of the ordinary every day, the traditions and routines and investments that anchor is in a "home." Part of what frees us to participate in this lived space is the necessary restlesness that a desire, a longing represents. That persistant draw to something other is what helps illuminate our lived space and inform it. It keeps where we are from being reduced to mundanity or meaninglessnes. It reminds us that we are part of a larger story.
The observation insisted that we all have this. In fact, we can apply this same concept in many different ways to the different facets of our lives. When it comes to the spaces we occupy however, it was not difficult for me to locate my draw. I long for the ocean. Not to be on it, but to be by it. For many people it is the mountains. For me the ocean is the antithesis of the mountains, In the beauty of the mountains, which yes, they are beautiful, my mind is constantly looking for a way out. It can't handle the feeling of clausterphobia. It feels restrictive and confining. At the ocean I find an invitation. To stand at the ocean front is to feel like the whole world is opened up. It invokes the imagination, for both the terror and the beauty. It embraces the sunrise and the sunsets like a cradle rather than, like the mountains, concealing it and blocking it out. And of course, knowing this is where I am drawn just opens up the constrast of where I live, landlocked in the center of the Canada, where the distance between me and the ocean on all sides couldn't be further. And yet, I love where I live. The embrace of my city's small time vibe. The simple pleasures of my favorite coffee shops and bookstores. The preserved turn of the century arcitecture that's practicatly in my backyard. The way the praries mimic the ocean's openness. My favorite drives. My neighborhood walks. But my love for where I live is also framed by the space to which I am drawn. When I go to the river, which is less than a 10 minute walk from my house, I long to be by the riverside, and that longing is framed by the lake from which it is drawn, a 40 minute drive from where I live. And that lake draws me to the bay, which draws me to the ocean. To drive the tanscanada in either direction is to know where it leads, to have it come alive in my mind. To look south is to find the great Mississippi river, a virtual symbol of this draw to the great emptying into the gulf.
There's another aspect of this for me too. When it comes to the ocean, the Atlantic inparticular has a special place in my imagination, as it holds together the history of civilization. Between its two sides we find the division of history that locates me where I am, and to cross it is to grasp that which roots this history in a singular story. Equally true is the restlessness I have long felt this side of the Atlantic between the worldview I inhereted from the enlightenment, a reductionist, materialist view of the world in which reality is reduced to scientific data, and the world that this view detached itself from, framed by a more expansive view of reality not reducible to mere data points. This is part of why I am drawn to imagine these spaces which haven't forgotten, in the ways the West often does, that we are shaped not by data, but by narrative.
This is a big part of what drew me to this book. It felt like a must own for me on both fronts. And the initial chapters helped me make sense of why. This is a book about bringing the prehistory of the Atlantics shaping to light. A preshistory that is shaped by narrative, by story. Narratives that find humanity on the shores of this mysterious place called the ocean and contemplating the true nature of this world against its chaos. It was an invitation to wonder, as the author says, and it is this wonder that drove people to broaden their view of the world. But, as the book equally draws out, this wonder meets with the hard reality of the enlightenments vision and interests when it arrives on the opposite shore. Here this wonder keeps getting reduced and reduced until this new space becomes the figurative "ends of the world." And not just the ends, but its percieved center. A center defined by progress. To have discovered the whole world gives way to mastering it as a resource. Not supriisingly, what this has unearthed is what we might call a crisis of meaning. Absent of wonder, what we have is a functional world absent of meaning. More and more, it seems what is happening now is people, figuratively speaking, are finding themselves back at that Atlantic shore looking back into the history of humanity, and indeed our world, and trying to recover those narratives that got left behind. Trying to recover that imagination.
The first portion of this book is all about bringing those myths to the surface. Those shared stories tied to the history of civilizaztion, helping us to see and understand the true shape of this world, this reality. Opening up our imaginations. And indeed, the first half of this book had me so hopeful, so enthralled. But then I hit the back half, and particularly the final quarter. This is where prehistory collides with modernity. And the further we get into this portion, the more I started to wonder abouit the hands this story had been placed into. After all, an enlightenment thinker will always and forever see history as necessarily driving towards what they see as the truth- the raitonalist west. Such a thinker will inevitably see the narratives of the past as the thing we are meant to let go of, a product of a more "religious" and more superstitious age, buitl on stuff that the modern world has done away with in favor of truth. It's just my opinion, but its improtant at the very least for such a thinker to be upfront about their interpretive biases as a historian. I don't think Haywood was. Given where the final chapter lands, I actually felt a bit decieved by the fact that Haywood is, indeed, playing to that enlightenment bias.
However, it was also possible for me to contextualize that when it came to my overall experience. I could take his information, and even portions where his own need and attempt to compartmentalize the world of narrative on his way to reducing it to scientific data, actually betrays the uncertainness of precisely what to do with this history. I could note his uncomfortableness with sitting inn these spaces, these stories, too long, which to me underscores their narrative power. Their refusal to let truth be reduced to something it is not. To me, this book reminded me about the profound nature of these "shared" stories, all anchored in a belief that something true exists. That simple belief is what keeps wonder as a key, guiding force of our ability to know and grow in knowledge. Something even Haywood accepts and notes.
Even at three out of five stars, this was a read that helped open up why I love the ocean, and inparticular why I love this particular ocean. It brought to life my longing, my desire, in a fresh way.
October 1, 2024
REad via NetGalley.
Broad sweeping history like this, even when done well, is both very intriguing and enjoyable to read, and occasionally frustrating. As long as you know what you're reading, you can get around that.
To get the frustrating bit out of the way: the book focuses almost entirely on the European experience. It touches briefly on Africa, and even more briefly on the Americas, but largely through a European lens. Now, I am sure that this is partly a dearth of written records - but a significant portion of the book is about pre-history and/or relies on archaeology, so that doesn't hold as a reason. I would have less of a problem with this if the book itself made clear it was "the European Atlantic," but it doesn't.
So, on the understanding that this book is largely about the European experience of the Atlantic before Columbus sailed across it, this is a pretty good book! It's a survey, so it covers an enormous swathe of time and, within the European bounds, a broad range of cultures too - which does mean it doesn't have really nitty-gritty detail, but that aspect is entirely expected.
Having recently visited Skara Brae, on Orkney, I was delighted to discover a section on that site, and to learn more about what it reveals of how Neolithic folks used the ocean. Haywood covers what we can know about how humans have eaten from the ocean (isotopes in bones, how amazing), as well as - when the literary sources exist - how they thought about it, used it in myths and stories, and so on. And then of course there's sailing, for a variety of reasons and in a variety of vessels.
I left this book intrigued by the different ways people have used this ocean over time. I generally enjoyed Haywood's writing style, and think this is accessible to the general reader.
Broad sweeping history like this, even when done well, is both very intriguing and enjoyable to read, and occasionally frustrating. As long as you know what you're reading, you can get around that.
To get the frustrating bit out of the way: the book focuses almost entirely on the European experience. It touches briefly on Africa, and even more briefly on the Americas, but largely through a European lens. Now, I am sure that this is partly a dearth of written records - but a significant portion of the book is about pre-history and/or relies on archaeology, so that doesn't hold as a reason. I would have less of a problem with this if the book itself made clear it was "the European Atlantic," but it doesn't.
So, on the understanding that this book is largely about the European experience of the Atlantic before Columbus sailed across it, this is a pretty good book! It's a survey, so it covers an enormous swathe of time and, within the European bounds, a broad range of cultures too - which does mean it doesn't have really nitty-gritty detail, but that aspect is entirely expected.
Having recently visited Skara Brae, on Orkney, I was delighted to discover a section on that site, and to learn more about what it reveals of how Neolithic folks used the ocean. Haywood covers what we can know about how humans have eaten from the ocean (isotopes in bones, how amazing), as well as - when the literary sources exist - how they thought about it, used it in myths and stories, and so on. And then of course there's sailing, for a variety of reasons and in a variety of vessels.
I left this book intrigued by the different ways people have used this ocean over time. I generally enjoyed Haywood's writing style, and think this is accessible to the general reader.
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January 6, 2025Oceans inspire humans to ask big questions: what’s on the other side of the water? How can we cross it? What can we recover about those who have gone and failed to return? Two new books address these grand queries in different ways: Sara Caputo turns imaginatively to cartography, while John Haywood uncovers rich clues in archaeology and myth.
In his Ocean: A History of the Atlantic Before Columbus, Haywood makes clear that many societies have viewed the Atlantic as an impregnable barrier. Yet a small number of intrepid men (and a few women) ventured forth nonetheless. Haywood’s story unfolds in three phases, beginning 168,000 years ago. To explain prehistoric settlement patterns on all sides of the Atlantic, he provides a brisk overview of Pangaea, plate tectonics, and how Homo sapiens sapiens differed from (fair skinned, blue-eyed) Neanderthals across the Strait of Gibraltar. His early seaside dwellers eat grilled mussels in caves in the Western Cape of South Africa, while others at the tip of South America warm their bodies by small hearths. (That way of life persisted long enough to catch Ferdinand Magellan’s eye when he sailed through the icy southern strait in 1520; their fires inspired him to name the region ‘Tierra del Fuego’.)
Read the rest of the review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...
Margaret E. Schotte teaches at York University, Toronto and is the author of Sailing School: Navigating Science and Skill, 1550-1800 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019).
In his Ocean: A History of the Atlantic Before Columbus, Haywood makes clear that many societies have viewed the Atlantic as an impregnable barrier. Yet a small number of intrepid men (and a few women) ventured forth nonetheless. Haywood’s story unfolds in three phases, beginning 168,000 years ago. To explain prehistoric settlement patterns on all sides of the Atlantic, he provides a brisk overview of Pangaea, plate tectonics, and how Homo sapiens sapiens differed from (fair skinned, blue-eyed) Neanderthals across the Strait of Gibraltar. His early seaside dwellers eat grilled mussels in caves in the Western Cape of South Africa, while others at the tip of South America warm their bodies by small hearths. (That way of life persisted long enough to catch Ferdinand Magellan’s eye when he sailed through the icy southern strait in 1520; their fires inspired him to name the region ‘Tierra del Fuego’.)
Read the rest of the review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...
Margaret E. Schotte teaches at York University, Toronto and is the author of Sailing School: Navigating Science and Skill, 1550-1800 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019).
January 3, 2025
There are many fascinating stories in here of ancient peoples and lands, but it’s a very Eurocentric account.
April 12, 2025
4.5 stars, but I'll round down for reasons (well, reason) I'll explain in a bit.
This is a very ambitious account of human interaction with the Atlantic Ocean. It goes over prehistorical stuff quickly, from the creation of the ocean itself, to early attempts at humans to eat oysters and other seafood, and eventual human settlement all around the oceans. This book stuff off with an impressively international scale to introduce us to the Atlantic.
Then Haywood shifts and dang near the entire rest of the book is the history of Europeans and the Atlantic. Or, to be a bit more accurate, the Western Civ history of interacting with the Atlantic (for Haywood does, after all, spend plenty of time on groups like the Phoenicians who are not European, but still in the Western Civ canon).
And this is why I'm rounding down. It starts off like it's a global history. The book's title helps lead one to believe that. But by the time you get to page 40 (which is less than 10% of the way through the hardcover edition), then the only thing that matters is Europeans. Others only appear when Europeans run into them. This is doubly annoying because it fills so neatly into the nasty tradition of only western civ mattering and the others are also-rans.
To be fair, a compelling case can and is made that the Western Civ/European interaction with the ocean was more substantial than other parts of the Atlantic coasts were, and this wasn't just a development of Leif Ericson and Christopher Columbus. He notes that when Europeans started sailing to Africa, that boats used for fishing around there were very small scale and never intended for much beyond the coastline. He does mention the story of the Mali expedition to the New World, but points out how their naval technology at the time made that unreaslistic and that the story was likely told by one king to say why the previous king sucked and was right for him to overthrow.
Still, I'm not sure if the naval involvement with the Americas and Africa were as limited as Haywood says or if his own knowledge of them is that limited.
Haywood does do an excellent job discussing the European involvement. From the rise of Indo-Europeans in the continent, to early sailing on the Mediterranean, to early forays into the Atlantic, the Vikings, improved naval technology and mapmaking, myths and legends of the seas, finally get around Cape Bojador in 1434, and then the famous expeditions. Fun fact: Portugal sent out a ship due west five years before Columbus, but this ship was never heard from again. Haywood is especially strong on the Vikings, which makes sense given that what he's written about in his previous books.
Don't expect it to be a global history of the Atlantic and you'll find the book quite rewarding.
This is a very ambitious account of human interaction with the Atlantic Ocean. It goes over prehistorical stuff quickly, from the creation of the ocean itself, to early attempts at humans to eat oysters and other seafood, and eventual human settlement all around the oceans. This book stuff off with an impressively international scale to introduce us to the Atlantic.
Then Haywood shifts and dang near the entire rest of the book is the history of Europeans and the Atlantic. Or, to be a bit more accurate, the Western Civ history of interacting with the Atlantic (for Haywood does, after all, spend plenty of time on groups like the Phoenicians who are not European, but still in the Western Civ canon).
And this is why I'm rounding down. It starts off like it's a global history. The book's title helps lead one to believe that. But by the time you get to page 40 (which is less than 10% of the way through the hardcover edition), then the only thing that matters is Europeans. Others only appear when Europeans run into them. This is doubly annoying because it fills so neatly into the nasty tradition of only western civ mattering and the others are also-rans.
To be fair, a compelling case can and is made that the Western Civ/European interaction with the ocean was more substantial than other parts of the Atlantic coasts were, and this wasn't just a development of Leif Ericson and Christopher Columbus. He notes that when Europeans started sailing to Africa, that boats used for fishing around there were very small scale and never intended for much beyond the coastline. He does mention the story of the Mali expedition to the New World, but points out how their naval technology at the time made that unreaslistic and that the story was likely told by one king to say why the previous king sucked and was right for him to overthrow.
Still, I'm not sure if the naval involvement with the Americas and Africa were as limited as Haywood says or if his own knowledge of them is that limited.
Haywood does do an excellent job discussing the European involvement. From the rise of Indo-Europeans in the continent, to early sailing on the Mediterranean, to early forays into the Atlantic, the Vikings, improved naval technology and mapmaking, myths and legends of the seas, finally get around Cape Bojador in 1434, and then the famous expeditions. Fun fact: Portugal sent out a ship due west five years before Columbus, but this ship was never heard from again. Haywood is especially strong on the Vikings, which makes sense given that what he's written about in his previous books.
Don't expect it to be a global history of the Atlantic and you'll find the book quite rewarding.
May 8, 2025
Fun book to read. Haywood focuses on European sailing in the Atlantic up until Columbus, using the archaeological record to make educated guesses about what pre-historic sailing on the Atlantic was like. The story really begins with the Phoenicians and Greeks and their efforts to sail past Gibraltar and out of the Mediterranean, most of which seem like legends and tall tales. There's some archaeological evidence, apparently, that the Romans made it to the "Fortunate Islands" (probably the Canary islands).
Haywood's story becomes more interesting when discussing the Irish monks and Celtic sailing in the north sea during the middle ages: the Celts were probably the first to sail to the Shetland, Faroe and Orkney islands and there are hints that they may have made it to Iceland and some of the southern islands (the Azores and Canaries). This was new to me and fascinating.
The story of Norse exploration and settlement was a bit more familiar but also interesting. Haywood really goes deep discussing the settlement of the Faroe Islands and the Orkney and Shetland islands (and how the Celts and Norse probably mixed here). He also writes at length about Iceland, Greenland and Vinland (Canada) and this can be thought of as the heart of the book. I was familiar with much of it, but Haywood provides a lot more depth and detail and so much of it was new to me and very interesting. I didn't realize that Greenlanders probably made regular voyages to Labrador to harvest wood and I didn't really understand how the Greenland colony declined as Inuit hunters moved in with climate change, but Haywood says it was mostly an economic issue: Greenland’s was principally an export economy (seals and walrus products) and when Russian products entered the market, the need for Greenland products declined and with it, the whole colony. It was never a subsistence economy. It seems likely that most of the people moved back to Iceland.
There's a nice section in the book about whaling and fishing, which brings in the Norse, the Hanseatic league, the Dutch, English and Basque. I liked the story about the Italian sailor who was blown to the Lofoten Islands and was enchanted with the Norse attitude to free love and coed nudity. The final section of the book is mostly about Portuguese exploration down the Atlantic coast and the eventual push beyond Cape Bojador on the African coast. Once around Cape Bojador, the Portuguese and then all western Europeans, quickly charted the worlds oceans. It’s remarkable how fast it all happened: what had been a world of mystery was mapped and understood with relative speed.
Haywood writes for a general reader and the book is very accessible. At times, it feels very Euro-centric, but he shows us how sailing on the Atlantic was really a European enterprise as other Atlantic cultures never ventured far from the shore.
Haywood's story becomes more interesting when discussing the Irish monks and Celtic sailing in the north sea during the middle ages: the Celts were probably the first to sail to the Shetland, Faroe and Orkney islands and there are hints that they may have made it to Iceland and some of the southern islands (the Azores and Canaries). This was new to me and fascinating.
The story of Norse exploration and settlement was a bit more familiar but also interesting. Haywood really goes deep discussing the settlement of the Faroe Islands and the Orkney and Shetland islands (and how the Celts and Norse probably mixed here). He also writes at length about Iceland, Greenland and Vinland (Canada) and this can be thought of as the heart of the book. I was familiar with much of it, but Haywood provides a lot more depth and detail and so much of it was new to me and very interesting. I didn't realize that Greenlanders probably made regular voyages to Labrador to harvest wood and I didn't really understand how the Greenland colony declined as Inuit hunters moved in with climate change, but Haywood says it was mostly an economic issue: Greenland’s was principally an export economy (seals and walrus products) and when Russian products entered the market, the need for Greenland products declined and with it, the whole colony. It was never a subsistence economy. It seems likely that most of the people moved back to Iceland.
There's a nice section in the book about whaling and fishing, which brings in the Norse, the Hanseatic league, the Dutch, English and Basque. I liked the story about the Italian sailor who was blown to the Lofoten Islands and was enchanted with the Norse attitude to free love and coed nudity. The final section of the book is mostly about Portuguese exploration down the Atlantic coast and the eventual push beyond Cape Bojador on the African coast. Once around Cape Bojador, the Portuguese and then all western Europeans, quickly charted the worlds oceans. It’s remarkable how fast it all happened: what had been a world of mystery was mapped and understood with relative speed.
Haywood writes for a general reader and the book is very accessible. At times, it feels very Euro-centric, but he shows us how sailing on the Atlantic was really a European enterprise as other Atlantic cultures never ventured far from the shore.
March 21, 2025
Tldr: I don't want to read a book that's over 600 pages long about the ocean when I can't be sure any of it is true.
This is a book about the history of the Atlantic, specifically the Europe coast, which starts with the formation of the Atlantic myself. I really enjoy the concept of this book, but there are odd inconsistencies that make me really doubt the veracity of the content. First of all, there are no in-text citations. This can be more of a preference since there ARE citations at the end of the book, but the source material is not cited within the body of the text, making it near impossible to verify any of the claims. This might not be a huge issue, but there are several statements that I feel very confident are the opinion of the author and not backed up by fact or research. Which again isn't a problem in a vacuum, but without in-text citations it is easy to be lead astray. Some of the claims made by the author feel akin to climate-change denial which is honestly insane in a book about the ocean. For example, the author frequently states how the oceans were ever-changing in early human history with temperatures swinging dramatically from hot to cold and oceans rising and falling several centimeters over the course of a year. He then compares this to modern climate change in a way that makes it feel like "see humans lived through it! It's fine". Maybe that's not his intent, but that's how it comes across. Another example of this that really bothered me was in his discussion of the people of tierra del fuego where he gives a summation of their existence and then a wackadoo claim that women were divers because they had a higher body fat content which would protect them from the seriously cold water (40 F). I feel confident that the women were divers, but I also feel confident the author has no reason to speculate as to why. Of course I would feel even more confident if I were able to check the source material via in-text citations.
Ultimately the writing style is enjoyable and the format of the text is good, but I'll be looking elsewhere to satisfy my craving for knowledge about the ocean.
This is a book about the history of the Atlantic, specifically the Europe coast, which starts with the formation of the Atlantic myself. I really enjoy the concept of this book, but there are odd inconsistencies that make me really doubt the veracity of the content. First of all, there are no in-text citations. This can be more of a preference since there ARE citations at the end of the book, but the source material is not cited within the body of the text, making it near impossible to verify any of the claims. This might not be a huge issue, but there are several statements that I feel very confident are the opinion of the author and not backed up by fact or research. Which again isn't a problem in a vacuum, but without in-text citations it is easy to be lead astray. Some of the claims made by the author feel akin to climate-change denial which is honestly insane in a book about the ocean. For example, the author frequently states how the oceans were ever-changing in early human history with temperatures swinging dramatically from hot to cold and oceans rising and falling several centimeters over the course of a year. He then compares this to modern climate change in a way that makes it feel like "see humans lived through it! It's fine". Maybe that's not his intent, but that's how it comes across. Another example of this that really bothered me was in his discussion of the people of tierra del fuego where he gives a summation of their existence and then a wackadoo claim that women were divers because they had a higher body fat content which would protect them from the seriously cold water (40 F). I feel confident that the women were divers, but I also feel confident the author has no reason to speculate as to why. Of course I would feel even more confident if I were able to check the source material via in-text citations.
Ultimately the writing style is enjoyable and the format of the text is good, but I'll be looking elsewhere to satisfy my craving for knowledge about the ocean.
March 30, 2025
Haywood lays out a thorough and readable history of the Atlantic from plate tectonics to 1492. Because tectonics left the Atlantic with very few islands early ocean going people could not “island hop” the Atlantic to visible or nearby pieces of land in the way Polynesians spread across the Pacific. This and prevailing winds limited exploration and trade to the Mediterranean and the coast of Europe from Spain to Ireland, Britain and Norway. Prevailing winds kept Europeans to the North of Africa until the 1400’s.
Oceans lays out insight to the historical motivations and key figures as people expanded their reach around the Atlantic from Mesolithics,neolithics,native Inuits and Sami, Greeks,Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Muslims, Moors, Berbers, Norse, Celts, Vikings, Basque whalers, countless fishermen and people searching for escape from rulers or wealth from new lands.
I particularly enjoyed the account of Pytheas a Greek explorer circa 320 BC who traveled vis the Rhône and possibly Loire Rivers to reach the British Isles where he traveled north until the seas became slush filled in the land of Thule. I heard this account before. I also liked stories of Celtic monks, I was familiar with tales of St Brendan “ exploring” the Atlantic in a curragh but didn’t think of these journeys as a monastic experience with the monks floating about in harsh conditions wherever God, the winds and currents took them.
Haywood has written previous books on the Vikings and Celts and these are the strongest part of Oceans. The whole work is encyclopedic and explores many aspects of Atlantic and Western history.
Oceans lays out insight to the historical motivations and key figures as people expanded their reach around the Atlantic from Mesolithics,neolithics,native Inuits and Sami, Greeks,Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Muslims, Moors, Berbers, Norse, Celts, Vikings, Basque whalers, countless fishermen and people searching for escape from rulers or wealth from new lands.
I particularly enjoyed the account of Pytheas a Greek explorer circa 320 BC who traveled vis the Rhône and possibly Loire Rivers to reach the British Isles where he traveled north until the seas became slush filled in the land of Thule. I heard this account before. I also liked stories of Celtic monks, I was familiar with tales of St Brendan “ exploring” the Atlantic in a curragh but didn’t think of these journeys as a monastic experience with the monks floating about in harsh conditions wherever God, the winds and currents took them.
Haywood has written previous books on the Vikings and Celts and these are the strongest part of Oceans. The whole work is encyclopedic and explores many aspects of Atlantic and Western history.
December 14, 2025
This is a fascinating book. At first I thought the subject a bit uninspiring, but I soon got into the story of the Atlantic Ocean - its animals, currents, climate and weather. Then the humans appear and it really begins to get going.
I knew next to nothing about the exploration and settlement of the Cape Verde Islands, Azores and Canaries and had only a sketchy idea about the Portuguese voyages down the west coast of Africa. I knew a bit more about the Vikings and later medieval in the north Atlantic to Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland but even there I learned new things.
All this is told in a lively style which chats through some often complex subject matter in an easily digestible form.
It was a shame that the final chapter rather spoiled it all for me. The author lazily repeats the usual smears and calumnies about Columbus. Columbus was not a scientist nor a cartographer nor an educated nobleman. He was an excellent navigator and reasonably successful merchant. A shame that, as so often, he is blamed for not being what he wasn't instead of being praised for what he was.
But never mind, an otherwise excellent book
I knew next to nothing about the exploration and settlement of the Cape Verde Islands, Azores and Canaries and had only a sketchy idea about the Portuguese voyages down the west coast of Africa. I knew a bit more about the Vikings and later medieval in the north Atlantic to Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland but even there I learned new things.
All this is told in a lively style which chats through some often complex subject matter in an easily digestible form.
It was a shame that the final chapter rather spoiled it all for me. The author lazily repeats the usual smears and calumnies about Columbus. Columbus was not a scientist nor a cartographer nor an educated nobleman. He was an excellent navigator and reasonably successful merchant. A shame that, as so often, he is blamed for not being what he wasn't instead of being praised for what he was.
But never mind, an otherwise excellent book
December 31, 2024
There's an author of WWII historical fiction (Alan Furst?) who I have heard exclusively writes novels set prior to D-Day: after that point, the narrative becomes a known quantity, an inevitable progress toward German defeat, so putting the story before then allows for a superior sense of drama and tension. I thought of that, reading this book; the "discovery" of America by Christopher Columbus renders our imagination of the Atlantic Ocean a mere thoroughfare, the historical narrative becoming focused on the Americas and the interactions between the New and Old Worlds rather than the ocean itself. This book, limiting itself (if "limit" can be an appropriate word for a 500+ page book spanning thousands of years) to pre-Columbian time, keeps the focus on the Atlantic, and how various peoples approached the ocean as an end (more or less literally) in itself, whether they be Islamic peoples confined to the Mediterranean, Irish monks seeking "green martyrdom" on barren spits of rock off the coast, Norse settler-explorers in Ice-, Green-, and Vinland. Quite interesting all around.
May 24, 2025
This work offers a different insight into analysis about the Atlantic Ocean. It primarily looks at pre-Columbus adventures/activities of people living around the Atlantic, as well as those that would sail and explore the ocean. The span of human history ranges from the earliest civilizations, to the Greeks/Romans, the Vikings, and those other peoples that sailed the Atlantic. The history is primarily Euro-centric, so way more detail about the European civilizations that interacted with the Atlantic before Columbus vs. those peoples living in the Americas. There is good history here, but sometimes, the discussions of the peoples/civilizations can overshadow the specifics of the people living/working/exploring the ocean directly. Still, even with the flaws, a solid work worth the time to read, regardless of format.
February 1, 2025
This has been one of the most readable, informative, and enjoyable history books I have ever read. It's written in a non-academic style, with moderate length chapters and many subchapters, which made it actually fun. Still full of interesting details, dates, and names, but what stays with you is an actual story. The sweeping approach to the "whole" history before Columbus is fresh, comprehensive, and so, so interesting (I do repeat this a lot because it's essential). After reading The Great Sea by Abulafia, I couldn't believe how many new things I found out even about the Mediterranean from this one. I can't believe so much good stuff fit in under 500 pages. It's an absolutely amazing read!!!
September 6, 2024
Opaque history of the Atlantic and its peoples
From an experienced historian and writer, this failed to engage in what should be a fascinating account of the Atlantic and its central role in Western civilisation. Assertions and summations are made too easily, without giving any insight into the journeys to discovery of the facts and historic texts mentioned and scarcely attributed. Whose scholarship is the text based on? Where are the original quotes or findings pulled from? Are suppositions part of the historic research world or wholly created by the author? The book appears to be a whole cloth but is instead riddled with more questions than it answers.
From an experienced historian and writer, this failed to engage in what should be a fascinating account of the Atlantic and its central role in Western civilisation. Assertions and summations are made too easily, without giving any insight into the journeys to discovery of the facts and historic texts mentioned and scarcely attributed. Whose scholarship is the text based on? Where are the original quotes or findings pulled from? Are suppositions part of the historic research world or wholly created by the author? The book appears to be a whole cloth but is instead riddled with more questions than it answers.
September 12, 2024
This is a very in depth look at the history of the Atlantic before Columbus. It is packed with detail which for me made it quite a slow read. However it concerns a subject I am interested in, and it is something that I don't think has been written about before and in such depth. It is basically a collection of all the available information, tied together by one of our best historical writers. I am amazed that I have spent my life believing that the exploration of the Atlantic started with the Spanish in the 1400's. The fact that a 500 page book can be written about exploration before Columbus shows how lacking our knowledge has been up until this date.
February 5, 2025
An amazing book--packed with information about the Atlantic and all the lands that border it, with a wealth of information drawn from a wide range of sources and expertise--about peoples, cultures, wars, conquests, migrations from Kenya to the entire landed surface surrounding the Atlantic (and beyond), successful and failed voyages of exploration--in accessible prose enlivened with an appreciation of irony and human foibles. An origin story that puts all the creation myths in their proper places. I started with a library copy but quickly realized that this was a book I needed to own, which thanks to Bookshop.org, I now do.
December 19, 2025
An exhaustively researched work that is fascinating. The whole history of the Atlantic--biological, geological--the works. I especially enjoyed the history of seafaring and exploration, and the surprising history of the fishing industry. Who knew there were Cod Wars in the 1970's in Iceland, stemming from 14th-century policies? I also enjoyed the accent of the narrator, though I was surprised to hear Magellan with a hard g.
January 1, 2025
Haywood's book is a truly wonderful look at the history of the Atlantic Ocean. Tracing the history of its exploration involves braiding together the histories of multiple regions and peoples and Haywood does a great job bringing each of these cultures to life. He also integrates the history of sailing techniques important for each culture.
March 8, 2025
Seemingly designed in a lab to pique my interests but ultimately a slog. The scope is too broad, the author’s specialty and interests are too narrow, and the two combined make for a catalog, not a narrative. Disappointing!
did-not-finish
May 10, 2025Really enjoyed the first half or so of the book, then got distracted by other things. It’s well-written, and the historian seems to operate by common sense and not to pursue some particular agenda, so I’d recommend it.
June 26, 2025
some chapters took me forever to read, too many details and names it is hard to sometimes to follow... other chapters were great, the whole Iceland Greenland part was very interesting to me. more like a textbook than a fun read
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 11, 2025
Not what I expected. Very broad discussion of history of trade, migration, and discovery. Jumped around in time frames and locations quite a bit. Didn't feel like a story or a history, but rather many miscellaneous short stories. Some were interesting.
Want to read
December 26, 2024DMPL HOLD. BUY AUDIBLE? JOYCE? Under $10. FRONT TABLE
February 11, 2025
interest read especially on the atlantic islands, greenland, and iceland
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