The epic life story of the Atlantic Ocean from the bestselling author,
Simon Winchester For thousands of years the Atlantic Ocean was viewed
by mariners with a mixture of awe, terror and amazement -- an impassable
barrier to the unknown. In recent times, as we fly high above it
without so much as bothering to look down, this vast sea has been
reduced to the status of a mere passageway between continents -- 'the
pond'. It is easy to forget that the Atlantic has been the setting for
some of the most important exchanges, ideas and challenges in the
history of civilisation -- a fulcrum around which the power and
influence of the modern world has long been distributed.
In
this narrative tour de force, Simon Winchester dramatises the life story
of the Atlantic, from its birth in the farther recesses of geological
time to its eventual extinction millions of years in the future. At the
heart of the book is the story of humankind's evolving attitude to and
relationship with the ocean. For millennia it has shaped the lives and
cultures of those who have lived along its shores and have navigated its
waters.
Travelling around its edges and across its huge
expanse, Winchester reports from the places that encapsulate the
Atlantic's most fascinating stories -- the age of exploration and the
colonisation of the Americas; the rise and fall of the slave trade, and
the flourishing of transatlantic commerce; extraordinary tales of
sea-borne emigration; and the great naval battles that have left an
indelible imprint on Atlantic history. The result is an utterly
enthralling mixture of history, science and reportage from a master of
narrative non-fiction, and an exhilarating account of a magnificent body
of water.
