The Ocean – A History of Ideas
Havet – En idéhistorie
Covering centuries of maritime history and stretching into today’s debates about ocean exploitation and protection, The Ocean – A History of Ideas is both a cultural odyssey and a timely reflection: Do we truly control the ocean — or will it always elude our grasp?
The ocean has always held a unique fascination. It has been seen as both a force of danger and a source of riches, a free passage and a contested space. In this richly illustrated volume, historians of ideas Ellen Krefting and Gard Paulsen explore how humans have lived with, understood, imagined, exploited, and tried to control the ocean throughout history.
The book takes readers on a voyage among sea monsters and apocalyptic floods, slave ships and pirates of the triangular trade, legendary shipwrecks, Hanseatic merchants, whalers, and marine surveyors. We encounter the sea as a symbol of freedom for adventurers, as well as a field of inquiry for scientists.
A magnificent and thought-provoking illustrated work on the ocean’s significance through the centuries.
