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More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionseBook editionsThe Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crimeby William Langewiesche
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Riveting stories of our last frontier and the acts of God and man upon it Even if we live within sight of the sea, it is easy to forget that our world is an ocean world. The open ocean spreads across three-fourths of the globe. It is a place of storms and danger, both natural and manmade. And at a time when every last patch of land is claimed by one government or another, it is a place that remains radically free. With typically understated lyricism, William Langewiesche explores this ocean world and the enterprises--licit and illicit--that flourish in the privacy afforded by its horizons. Forty-three thousand gargantuan ships ply the open ocean, carrying nearly all the raw materials and products on which our lives are built. Many are owned or managed by one-ship companies so ghostly that they exist only on paper. They are the embodiment of modern global capital and the most independent objects on earth--many of them without allegiances of any kind, changing identity and nationality at will. Here is free enterprise at it freest, opportunity taken to extremes. But its efficiencies are accompanied by global problems--shipwrecks and pollution, the hard lives and deaths of the crews, and the growth of two perfectly adapted pathogens: a modern and sophisticated strain of piracy and its close cousin, the maritime form of the new stateless terrorism. This is the outlaw sea--perennially defiant and untamable--that Langewiesche brings startlingly into view. The ocean is our world, he reminds us, and it is wild. Review:"'Our world is an ocean world, and it is wild,' Langewiesche writes. He then poses a powerful question: have the industrialized nations of the world given up control of the shipping industry to the demands of the free market? And if this free market is indeed the most efficient and profitable system, what price, socially, politically and environmentally will it extract from the human beings who use it? From the panic-stricken bridge of a sinking oil tanker to the filth-clogged beaches resulting from a destroyed ship in India, Langewiesche (American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center) vividly describes a global cabal of unscrupulous ship owners, well-intentioned but overmatched regulators, and poorly trained and poorly paid seamen who risk their lives every day to make this new global economy function. 'It is not exactly a criminal industry,' Langewiesche explains, 'but it is an amoral and stubbornly anarchic one.' Accidents happen with alarming regularity. A sobering account of the 1994 sinking of the passenger ferry Estonia sits at the bottom of the Baltic, a silent monument to the cost of a free market gone awry. Equal parts incisive political harangue and lyrical reflection on the timelessness of the sea, this book brilliantly illuminates a system the world economy depends upon, but will not take responsibility for. Agent, Chuck Verrill. (May)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"[I]mpressive and well-wrought....[A] fiery piece of work that speaks from a primal and awesome place." Kirkus Reviews Review:"As [Langewiesche] demonstrates time and time again in this brave, often electrifying book, [the sea] is a world that is both new and very old, and we ignore it at our peril." Nathaniel Philbrick, New York Times Book Review Review:"Langewiesche, an Atlantic Monthly correspondent, might be the best investigative journalist working today." Entertainment Weekly Synopsis:With typically understated lyricism, Langewiesche explores international waters — the last radically free place on Earth — and the licit and illicit enterprises that flourish in the privacy afforded by its horizons. Synopsis:The open ocean--that vast expanse of international waters--spreads across three-fourths of the globe. It is a place of storms and danger, both natural and manmade. And at a time when every last patch of land is claimed by one government or another, it is a place that remains radically free. With typically understated lyricism, William Langewiesche explores this ocean world and the enterprises--licit and illicit--that flourish in the privacy afforded by its horizons. But its efficiencies are accompanied by global problems--shipwrecks and pollution, the hard lives and deaths of the crews of the gargantuan ships, and the growth of two pathogens: a modern and sophisticated strain of piracy and its close cousin, the maritime form of the new stateless terrorism. This is the outlaw sea that Langewiesche brings startlingly into view. The ocean is our world, he reminds us, and it is wild. About the AuthorWilliam Langewiesche is the author of four previous books, Cutting for Sign, Sahara Unveiled, Inside the Sky, and American Ground. He is a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, where this book originated. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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History and Social Science » Crime » General
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