Synopses & Reviews
These innovative essays probe the underlying unities that bound the early modern Atlantic world into a regional whole and trace some of the intellectual currents that flowed through the lives of the people of the four continents. Drawn together in a comprehensive Introduction by Bernard Bailyn, the essays include analyses of the climate and ecology that underlay the slave trade, pan-Atlantic networks of religion and of commerce, legal and illegal, inter-ethnic collaboration in the development of tropical medicine, science as a product of imperial relations, the Protestant international that linked Boston and pietist Germany, and the awareness and meaning of the Atlantic world in the mind of that preeminent intellectual and percipient observer, David Hume.
In his Introduction Bailyn explains that the Atlantic world was never self-enclosed or isolated from the rest of the globe but suggests that experiences in the early modern Atlantic region were distinctive in ways that shaped the course of world history.
Review
With their emphasis on networks--economic, ecological, migratory, commercial, religious, intellectual, ideological--the wide-ranging essays in this book invite a host of new and exciting questions in Atlantic history. They reframe the Atlantic, offering new models to explain relationships in several ways: between Europe, Africa, and the Americas; between the political hearts of empires and the territories and subjects they sought to govern; and between empires and states. This volume is a feast for the imagination that will be valuable for both scholars and non-specialists. Alison Games, Georgetown University
Review
An impressive volume, ranging from smuggling to science, from ecology to the economy, from Benin to Buenos Aires, from Pietists to Puritans, and from Hipólito da Costa to Hume, reveals the vigor and freshness of Atlantic history. The magisterial introduction reveals the relationship between the latent and the manifest, the connection between subterranean forces and surface outlines. Overall, the general and particular combine superbly. Philip D. Morgan, Johns Hopkins University
Review
Engagingly written, the book demonstrates the shifting significance of the Atlantic World as well as its multiple significations in reality and over time. The Atlantic has made it possible to create a hybrid world, where what started as local ideas ultimately became globalized. Globalized localisms became globalized universalisms, enabling millions of people to subscribe to the same religions, read the same books and consume the same food. This book has enabled us to comprehend this mental and physical universe of the Atlantic World with enormous significance. Toyin Falola
Review
This is a most illuminating body of work for anyone interested in the latest research on the Atlantic world. H-Soz-u-kult Reviews
Review
Adds considerably to our understanding of Atlantic (and other) histories. Xabier Lamikiz - International Journal of Maritime History
Synopsis
Drawn together in a comprehensive Introduction by Bernard Bailyn, these innovative essays include analyses of the climate and ecology that underlay the slave trade, pan-Atlantic networks of religion and commerce, as well as the inter-ethnic collaboration in the development of tropical medicine, science as a product of imperial relations, and the awareness of the Atlantic world in the mind of David Hume.
Synopsis
Bernard Bailyn is a 2010 National Humanities Medal Winner
About the Author
Bernard Bailyn is Adams University Professor, Emeritus, and Director of the International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World, Harvard University. He is the author of numerous books, including The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes) and The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson (National Book Award), both published by Harvard.Patricia L. Denault is the former Administrative Director of the International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World and of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard UniversityLonda Schiebinger is John L. Hinds Professor of History of Science and Barbara D. Finberg Director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford University.Emma Rothschild is a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and Director of the Center for History and Economics, King's College.
University of California, Berkeley
Table of Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction: Reflections on Some Major Themes [Bernard Bailyn]
- 1. Ecology, Seasonality, and the Transatlantic Slave Trade [Stephen D. Behrendt]
- 2. Kongo and Dahomey, 1660–1815: African Political Leadership in the Era of the Slave Trade and Its Impact on the Formation of African Identity in Brazil [Linda M. Heywood and John K. Thornton]
- 3. The Triumphs of Mercury: Connection and Controlin the Emerging Atlantic Economy [David J. Hancock]
- 4. Inter-Imperial Smuggling in the Americas, 1600–1800 [Willem Klooster]
- 5. Procurators and the Making of the Jesuits’ Atlantic Network [J. Gabriel Martínez-Serna]
- 6. Dissenting Religious Communication Networks and European Migration, 1660–1710 [Rosalind J. Beiler]
- 7. Typology in the Atlantic World: Early Modern Readings of Colonization [Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra]
- 8. A Courier between Empires: Hipólito da Costa and the Atlantic World [Neil Safier]
- 9. Scientific Exchange in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World [Londa Schiebinger]
- 10. Theopolis Americana: The City-State of Boston, the Republic of Letters, and the Protestant International, 1689–1739 [Mark A. Peterson]
- 11. The Río de la Plata and Anglo-American Political and Social Models 1810–1827 [Beatriz Dávilo]
- 12. The Atlantic Worlds of David Hume [Emma Rothschild]
- Notes
- List of Contributors
- Index