Britain and the Sea

Chosen as Professor Andrew Lambert's top History book of 2010 in BBC History Magazine's Christmas edition: http://publicpolicypast.blogspot.com/2010/12/good-reviews-cheer-me-up.html 'Glen O'Hara has brought his rigorous historical intellect to bear on one of the biggest and most important actors in British economic, social and cultural history: the sea that surrounds these islands. Even the most incorrigible landlubber will be educated and fascinated by this rich and original book.' - Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University, and author of Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World '...valiant and successful...' - The Scotsman 'Ours is an island story, it's always said - but our chroniclers haven't generally attempted to think through what that might have meant for British history as a whole. The implications have, of course, been far too complex to be captured in a single study, but Glen O'Hara makes a valiant - and surprisingly successful - try. Here, we find everything from fishing to the Falklands War; from Raleigh's explorations to the rise of the seaside resort. Not just North Sea Oil but the South Sea Bubble; not just the Battle of Trafalgar but the slave trade. If Britannia's ruled the waves, he finds, the converse has also been true: the sea has made Britain - and her people - what they are.' - The Scotsman 'This book may not cure the deep , endemic historical malaise of maritime myopia , but it does offer a powerful , economical remedy for anyone willing to risk the treatment.' - BBC History Magazine '[O'Hara's] creative synthesis brings together much of what is best in recent scholarship with wider academic concerns to provide a holistic approach to an oceanic nation...this text demands that all historians of Britain, whatever their specialisation, must reconsider the place of the sea. The impressive scholarly apparatus demonstrates a substantial engagement with the literature, and provides a fine guide to anyone essaying a new avenue of research.' - English Historical Review

O'Hara presents the first general history of Britons' relationship with the surrounding oceans from 1600 to the present day. This all-encompassing account covers individual seafarers, ship-borne migration, warfare and the maritime economy, as well as the British people's maritime ideas and self perception throughout the centuries.O'Hara presents the first general history of Britons' relationship with the surrounding oceans from 1600 to the present day. This all-encompassing account covers individual seafarers, ship-borne migration, warfare and the maritime economy, as well as the British people's maritime ideas and self perception throughout the centuries.