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.
It inspires a desire to plunge in—if not into the sea itself, then certainly into the ideas and imaginings that surround it. Krefting and Paulsen demonstrate that deep, expansive knowledge of the subject can sit beautifully alongside graceful, engaging prose.
Morgenbladet
…succeeds in conveying
research with a sense of storytelling… The book also
offers a generous selection of drawings, paintings,
photographs and—last but not least—sea charts. In this way,
the book becomes a magnificent work of art.Klassekampen
Havet står som et fremragende eksempel på hvordan omfattende forskningsmateriale kan gis et populærvitenskapelig format.
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