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The Great Sea
- A Human History of the Mediterranean
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 29 hrs and 25 mins
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Publisher's summary
Situated at the intersection of Europe, Asia, and Africa, the Mediterranean Sea has been for millenia the place where religions, economies, and political systems met, clashed, influenced, and absorbed one another. David Abulafia offers a fresh perspective by focusing on the sea itself: its practical importance for transport and sustenance; its dynamic role in the rise and fall of empires; and the remarkable cast of characters - sailors, merchants, migrants, pirates, pilgrims - who have crossed and recrossed it.
Ranging from prehistory to the 21st century, The Great Sea is above all the history of human interaction across a region that has brought together many of the great civilizations of antiquity as well as the rival empires of medieval and modern times.
Interweaving major political and naval developments with the ebb and flow of trade, Abulafia explores how commercial competition in the Mediterranean created both rivalries and partnerships, with merchants acting as intermediaries between cultures, trading goods that were as exotic on one side of the sea as they were commonplace on the other. He stresses the remarkable ability of Mediterranean cultures to uphold the civilizing ideal of convivencia, "living together", exemplified in medieval Spain, where Christian theologians studied Arabic texts with the help of Jewish and Muslim scholars, and traceable throughout the history of the region.
Brilliantly written and sweeping in its scope, The Great Sea is itself as varied and inclusive as the region it describes, covering everything from the Trojan War, the history of piracy, and the great naval battles between Carthage and Rome to the Jewish Diaspora into Hellenistic worlds, the rise of Islam, the Grand Tours of the 19th century, and mass tourism of the 20th. It is, in short, a magnum opus, the definitive account of perhaps the most vibrant theater of human interaction in history.
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The death of the Roman Empire is one of the perennial mysteries of world history. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Peter Heather proposes a stunning new solution: Centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors Rome called barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling an Empire that had dominated their lives for so long. A leading authority on the late Roman Empire and on the barbarians, Heather relates the extraordinary story of how Europe's barbarians, transformed by centuries of contact with Rome on every possible level, eventually pulled the empire apart.
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A New HIstory but not a better history
- By Mario on 03-28-14
By: Peter Heather
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Sicily: Three Thousand Years of Human History
- By: Sandra Benjamin
- Narrated by: Fred Filbrich
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Emigration of people from Sicily often overshadows the importance of the people who immigrated to the island through the centuries. These have included several who became Sicily's rulers, along with Jews, Ligurians, and Albanians. Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Goths, Byzantines, Muslims, Normans, Hohenstaufens, Spaniards, Bourbons, the Savoy Kingdom of Italy and the modern era have all held sway, and left lasting influences on the island's culture and architecture.
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Surprisingly compelling!
- By P. Strayer on 08-25-12
By: Sandra Benjamin
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The Silk Roads
- A New History of the World
- By: Peter Frankopan
- Narrated by: Laurence Kennedy
- Length: 24 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures, and religions. From the rise and fall of empires to the spread of Buddhism and the advent of Christianity and Islam, right up to the great wars of the 20th century - this book shows how the fate of the West has always been inextricably linked to the East.
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An Absolutely SUPERB Book for Lovers of History
- By Dipam on 06-27-21
By: Peter Frankopan
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The Fortunes of Africa
- A 5000-Year History of Wealth, Greed, and Endeavor
- By: Martin Meredith
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 26 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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A sweeping history of the fortune seekers, adventurers, despots, and thieves who have ruthlessly endeavored to extract gold, diamonds, and other treasures from Africa and its people.
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VAST & WELL RESEARCHED
- By Odomite on 02-03-21
By: Martin Meredith
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World History
- Ancient History, United States History, European, Native American, Russian, Chinese, Asian, Indian and Australian History, Wars Including World War 1 and 2
- By: Adam Brown
- Narrated by: Sarah Moore
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Have you ever wondered how the world got to where it is today? Get ready to discover the rich history of our planet. You will be astonished to learn about some of the events that have occurred! Subjects include: Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, The Roman Empire, Constantine and Christianity, India, Ancient Korea, Chinese Dynasties, Napoleonic Europe, Foundation of USA, The 1812 War, Australia and Wars, World War I, World War II, The Ottoman Empire, Greece and North Africa, The Diem Regime, Pearl Harbor, and much more!
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Truly a fine book
- By Zlady Neri on 09-08-19
By: Adam Brown
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The Boundless Sea
- A Human History of the Oceans
- By: David Abulafia
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 41 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the author of the acclaimed The Great Sea, David Abulafia's new book guides listeners along the world's greatest bodies of water to reveal their primary role in human history. The main protagonists are the three major oceans - the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian - which together comprise the majority of the earth's water and cover over half of its surface. These waterways carried goods, plants, livestock, and, of course, people across vast expanses, transforming and ultimately linking irrevocably the economies and cultures of Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
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Like Reading a Dictionary.
- By aaron on 01-10-21
By: David Abulafia
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Ragnar Lothbrok and a History of the Vikings
- Viking Warriors Including Rollo, Norsemen, Norse Mythology, Quests in America, England, France, Scotland, Ireland and Russia
- By: Noah Brown
- Narrated by: Dalan E. Decker
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Ragnar Lothbrok was a legendary warrior who left a legacy among the Vikings like none other. Today's popular TV show may have popularized Ragnar's story, but the real facts are not very well known. Discover the truth behind this Viking warrior and the rich history of the Vikings.
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Happy with this purchase!
- By Michelle Watson on 09-08-19
By: Noah Brown
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Pax Romana
- War, Peace, and Conquest in the Roman World
- By: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Pax Romana examines how the Romans came to control so much of the world and asks whether traditionally favorable images of the Roman peace are true. Goldsworthy vividly recounts the rebellions of the conquered and examines why they broke out, why most failed, and how they became exceedingly rare. He reveals that hostility was just one reaction to the arrival of Rome and that from the outset, conquered peoples collaborated, formed alliances, and joined invaders, causing resistance movements to fade away.
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2 stars if youve read goldsworthy; 2.5 or 3 if not
- By fm2 on 10-21-16
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A Short History of the World
- By: Christopher Lascelles
- Narrated by: Guy Bethell
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
While this book explores world history from the big bang to the present day, it principally covers key people, events, and empires since the dawn of the first civilizations in and around 3500 BC. Epic in scope but refreshingly concise, A Short History of the World is an excellent place to start to bring your historical knowledge up to scratch.
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Apt introduction to World's History
- By rpluss on 12-22-16
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The Race for Paradise
- An Islamic History of the Crusades
- By: Paul M. Cobb
- Narrated by: Paul M. Cobb
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
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In The Race for Paradise, Paul M. Cobb offers a new history of the confrontations between Muslims and Franks we now call the "Crusades", one that emphasizes the diversity of Muslim experiences of the European holy war. There is more to the story than Jerusalem, the Templars, Saladin, and the Assassins. Cobb considers the Arab perspective on all shores of the Muslim Mediterranean, from Spain to Syria.
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A heady piece of history and a romp.
- By Meeno on 05-28-15
By: Paul M. Cobb
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Marathon
- The Battle That Changed Western Civilization
- By: Richard A. Billows
- Narrated by: Jeremy Gage
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
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Overall
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Published to coincide with Marathon's 2500th anniversary, a riveting history of the historic battle. The Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. is not only understood as the most decisive event in the struggle between the Greeks and the Persians, but can also be seen as perhaps the most significant moment in our collective history. 10,000 Athenian citizens faced a Persian military force of more than 25,000.
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Effectively evokes the world of ancient greece
- By Aaron on 11-02-10
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Brilliant detail, exciting story
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Surprisingly compelling!
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Unfortunately
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Thrashed insensibly by over writing
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When the United States was young, importing luxury goods from China was a secretive, glamorous, often brutal business - one where teas and silks and porcelain were purchased with profits from the opium trade. But the journey by sea to New York from Canton could take six agonizing months, and so the most pressing technological challenge of the day became ensuring one’s goods arrived first to market. Barons of the Sea tells the story of a handful of cutthroat competitors who raced to build the fastest, finest, most profitable clipper ships to carry their precious cargo to American shores.
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First rate
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During World War II, in the middle of building an atomic bomb, the leaders of the Manhattan Project were alarmed to learn that Nazi Germany was far outpacing the Allies in nuclear weapons research; Hitler, with just a few pounds of uranium, would have the capability to reverse the entire D-Day operation and conquer Europe. So they assembled a rough and motley crew of geniuses—dubbed the Alsos Mission—and sent them careening into Axis territory to spy on, sabotage, and even assassinate members of Nazi Germany's feared Uranium Club.
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Awesome
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The Anglo-Saxon World
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The Anglo-Saxon period, stretching from the fifth to the late eleventh century, begins with the Roman retreat from the Western world and ends with the Norman takeover of England. Between these epochal events, many of the contours and patterns of English life that would endure for the next millennium were shaped. In this authoritative work, N. J. Higham and M. J. Ryan reexamine Anglo-Saxon England in the light of new research in disciplines as wide ranging as historical genetics, paleobotany, archaeology, literary studies, art history, and numismatics.
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Reference, Not Narrative
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What listeners say about The Great Sea
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Rob
- 05-25-21
Fabulous book! Narration is very good!
The Mediterranean played an important role in the development of the Western World and this book has it all. I found it easy to follow. I would recommend using the accompanying PDF to follow the geography involved. Great audiobook!
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- Fr. S.
- 01-11-24
The Depths of a Sea and of History
I have studied the cultures of the lands surrounding the Mediterranean since high school. This book is a most interesting and informative study of the sea's role in history. I loved it quite well.
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- Jim
- 01-06-23
Loved this book
Listening to it for the second time. I particularly enjoyed the format. I highly recommend.
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- Ron
- 03-25-17
Well written, insightful history
Amazing depth and wealth of knowledge across the ages of this fascinating area of the world. Extraordinarily well researched and structured around the lives of those that lived upon and around this great Sea. Despite covering such a broad spectrum of history, areas and cultures I found it far from a simplistic, and instead providing a refined and perceptive understanding of the various people of the Mediterranean, how their lives were affected by the sea, how they affected it, and each other. I truly enjoyed Mr. Abulafia's history, as well as the reading by Jason Culp.
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Overall
- Kindle Customer
- 03-08-15
very well researched
Interesting method of actually telling about the sea and not just the countries around it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jersey Tom, one of many...
- 08-27-23
Solid!!
Great detail and clarity. Should be a must read for history students and as a general history 101.
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- Jim H.
- 11-13-23
Incredibly thorough
If you want the complete story of the history of the Mediterranean, this is the book for you. Organizing this vast swath of history chronologically, cutting across all the national players makes their interactions so much clearer.
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- Roger
- 01-14-13
Impressive and Accessible History
This is a great historic panorama of the Mediterranean. It is meticulously researched and cogently presented. As with any work that encompasses 7,000 years, it is in some ways an overview and introduction. At the same time, it provides valuable details into, and insightful analysis of, all historic periods. I therefore disagree with the earlier reviewer in that the book does tell a story, and there are themes. First among these is the cross-cultural mixing that has occurred ever since humans started to cross the sea.
Abulafia sees the nationalism and ethnic cleansing that has occurred since the end of WWI as a terrible break from that tradition. Yet he describes earlier pogroms and deportations, all of which had terrible human costs, but none of which could long prevent such mixing. I would argue that one could evaluate ethnic cleansing as a similar horrible reaction to the persistence of cultural mixing. In that vein, Abulafia also describes how tourism serves to continue such interaction across cultures in the present.
I think Abulafia therefore overstates his disagreements with Braudel. While political history is critical, he describes throughout the book how political decisions were limited by the geography and environments of the Mediterranean and its bordering regions. To me, this exemplifies Braudel’s argument that political history can exist only within the physical, environmental and economic worlds within which it takes place.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Aaron Arrowood
- 04-18-15
Brilliant and Enspiring!
This book was the "gate way" to a whole new field of interest for me. The way the Mediterranean as a whole and the countries around it effected the world we know today is mind boggling! Wars, people, empires, inventions, that without "The Great Sea" would never have have been a reality! This book was time consuming, complicated and hard to listen to, but I know that cool and amazing is not always easy. Thank you so much Mr. Abulafia for writing this book, it truly has changed my view on the Mediterranean world. Definitely read this book, you will not regret it! I am only a sofa-more in high school and I loved this book!
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9 people found this helpful
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- MD_44
- 01-17-23
Not for the casual listener
The idea and much of the content of this book are really great.
Nevertheless, the terms, names (in english) of cities and people were assuming listeners are familiar with that way of naming things. Cramming some particular ethnic group to occupy a sizable portion of the book and almost 3 minutes of a 14 minutes summary could have been much less.
This audio book is not for the casual listener.
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