The Great Sea, (Paperback)

from cheezdoggie

A well written account of the empires, cities, religions, and individuals that have influenced the great sea. Even though it was somewhat difficult keeping track of who invaded what, where and when, I must commend the author on his engaging writing style and his obvious knowledge on the history o...

from jcbrunner

Oh, Braudel, Braudel! What trend you started. While a common "Club Med" lifestyle around the mare nostrum can be quite easily identified (and witnessed by any tourist), establishing a common history is a much more difficult task. Similar to Ravel's Boléro, the start in the eastern corner of the s...

from pbjwelch

Superb, superb, superb. A keeper for the rest of my life, a book I will dip in and out of, I am certain, many many times (have now read cover-to-cover twice) before I lay aside. I am an Asia historian but one can not escape the importance of Mediterranean Europe upon Asian history and culture, he...

from Hae-Yu

Contains a wealth of information that I did not know. By using the Mediterranean as his focus, swaths of history that are normally in separate silos are brought together much more coherently - such as Western civilization, Near Eastern civilization, Islamic studies, Northern Africa, etc. This his...

from pbjwelch

Superb, superb, superb. A keeper for the rest of my life, a book I will dip in and out of, I am certain, many many times (have now read cover-to-cover twice) before I lay aside. I am an Asia historian but one can not escape the importance of Mediterranean Europe upon Asian history and culture, he...