James Stripes’s Reviews > The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History, Volume 1: Atlantic America 1492-1800 > Status Update

My current interest in this book stems from its value to the development of the emerging field of Atlantic History. After the first part (3-76), however, it seems too focused on North America. While it does a good job of reframing United States national histories, it offers too little concerning Central and South America, to say nothing of Africa and Europe, for my present needs.

My current interest in this book stems from its value to the development of the emerging field of Atlantic History. After the first part (3-76), however, it seems too focused on North America. While it does a good job of reframing United States national histories, it offers too little concerning Central and South America, to say nothing of Africa and Europe, for my present needs.

Although claiming to offer a geographer's perspective, Meinig seems to be focused of patterns of institutions. Seafaring, conquest, and planting of colonies is the sequence. The Portuguese are strong in seafaring, as are the English. Ireland offered some practice in conquest that facilitated colonization in the New World by the English. But the Spanish Reconquest equipped the Spanish better for New World enterprises.