A wonderfully concise and readable, yet comprehensive, history of the
Mediterranean Sea, the perfect companion for any visitor -- or indeed,
anyone compelled to stay at home.
'The grand object of travelling is to see the shores of the
Mediterranean.'
Samuel Johnson, 1776
The Mediterranean has always been a leading stage for world history; it
is also visited each year by tens of millions of tourists, both local
and international. Jeremy Black provides an account in which the
experience of travel is foremost: travel for tourism, for trade, for
war, for migration, for culture, or, as so often, for a variety of
reasons. Travellers have always had a variety of goals and situations,
from rulers to slaves, merchants to pirates, and Black covers them all,
from Phoenicians travelling for trade to the modern tourist sailing for
pleasure and cruising in great comfort.
Throughout the book the emphasis is on the sea, on coastal regions and
on port cities visited by cruise liners - Athens, Barcelona, Naples,
Palermo. But it also looks beyond, notably to the other waters that
flow into the Mediterranean - the Black Sea, the Atlantic, the Red Sea
and rivers, from the Ebro and Rhone to the Nile.
Much of western Eurasia and northern Africa played, and continues to
play, a role, directly or indirectly, in the fate of the Mediterranean.
At times, that can make the history of the sea an account of conflict
after conflict, but it is necessary to understand these wars in order
to grasp the changing boundaries of the Mediterranean states, societies
and religions, the buildings that have been left, and the peoples'
cultures, senses of identity and histories.
Black explores the centrality of the Mediterranean to the Western
experience of travel, beginning in antiquity with the Phoenicians,
Minoans and Greeks. He shows how the Roman Empire united the sea, and
how it was later divided by Christianity and Islam. He tells the story
of the rise and fall of the maritime empires of Pisa, Genoa and Venice,
describes how galley warfare evolved and how the Mediterranean fired
the imagination of Shakespeare, among many artists. From the
Renaissance and Baroque to the seventeenth-century beginnings of
English tourism - to the Aegean, Sicily and other destinations - Black
examines the culture of the Mediterraean. He shows how English naval
power grew, culminating in Nelson's famous victory over the French in
the Battle of the Nile and the establishment of Gibraltar, Minorca and
Malta as naval bases. Black explains the retreat of Islam in north
Africa, describes the age of steam navigation and looks at how and why
the British occupied Cyprus, Egypt and the Ionian Islands. He looks at
the impact of the Suez Canal as a new sea route to India and how the
Riviera became Europe's playground. He shows how the Mediterranean has
been central to two World Wars, the Cold War and ongoing conflicts in
the Middle East. With its focus always on the Sea, the book looks at
the fate of port cities particularly - Alexandria, Salonika and Naples.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
