The Great Sea

A Human History of the Mediterranean

By: David Abulafia

Narrated by: Jason Culp

Length: 29 hrs and 25 mins

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.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2011 David Abulafia (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

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.

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!

Loved this book

Listening to it for the second time. I particularly enjoyed the format. I highly recommend.

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.

very well researched

Interesting method of actually telling about the sea and not just the countries around it.

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.

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!

Solid!!

Great detail and clarity. Should be a must read for history students and as a general history 101.

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.

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.