The Corrupting Sea
A Study of Mediterranean History
Peregrine Horden author Nicholas Purcell author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Should be back in stock very soon
This book presents a detailed examination of the relationship between humans and their environment in the Mediterranean, spanning 3,000 years. The Corrupting Sea offers a unique perspective.
In The Corrupting Sea, the author embarks on a comprehensive exploration of the intricate relationship between humans and their environment in the Mediterranean region over the last 2,000 years. This analysis delves into a variety of significant themes, including historiography, settlement patterns, demographic changes, and the impact of religious cult sites. It examines how these factors have shaped the lives of communities and their interactions with the physical and biological surroundings.
The narrative also addresses critical issues such as climate variations, the spread of diseases, and the consequences of deforestation. These elements are intertwined with the technological innovations that have emerged throughout history, highlighting how advancements have influenced human adaptation to the environment. The book provides a nuanced understanding of the Mediterranean landscape, emphasizing the importance of microecologies and the networks that connect them.
By focusing on the anthropology of Mediterranean communities, The Corrupting Sea offers readers a fresh perspective on the historical interplay between people and their environments. This work ultimately sheds light on how these interactions have evolved over time, providing valuable insights into the sustainability of human life in the face of changing ecological conditions.
"TheCorrupting Sea is a book that all classicists should read." Classical Review
"In their book The Corrupting Sea, Horden and Purcell have engaged in one of the most relentless intellectual reassessments to have been undertaken in recent times of the history of the pre-industrial Mediterranean. One seldom emerges from a book as rich as this, having had so many firmly-held notions shaken out of one's mind and having glimpsed so many enthralling new vistas on a once-familiar past." Professor Peter Brown, Princeton University
"To bring together the economic and social history of so many periods and places within the great story of the Mediterranean is a remarkable achievement and Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell should be congratulated upon it." Professor Colin Renfrew, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge
"In recreating the Mediterranean for the new millennium, the authors offer a substantial achievement that challenges many long-held assumptions not only about the Mediterranean, but also about human relations with the environment and even the very nature of historical writing. It certainly deserves to provoke discussion among scholars from fields as broad as its own grand scope." Times Higher Education Supplement
"The Corrupting Sea is a book of magisterial synthesis and scholarship - a huge multi-disciplinary literature turned into a narrative that is at once comprehensive, enjoyable, quirky and thought-provoking." Antiquity
"This book will be indispensable for the serious student of the Mediterranean past and present." CHOICE
"This is an important book that presents a powerful and original model of Mediterranean history that will be used, debated, and criticized by historians of all periods for years to come." English Historical Review
"Horden and Purcell's new Mediterranean panorama, which will take a generation of historians to digest and implement, forms one of those manifest watersheds in the study of antiquity." Journal of Roman Archaeology
"This book amounts to an often fascinating, and unerringly useful, compendium." International History Review
"Here a generation of ecological historians ... has led the way. Horden and Purcell have synthesized that literature, extended its reach into the Middle Ages, and made it accessible to the general medievalist." Speculum
"This impressive work synthesizes a vast amount of historical, geographical, archaelogical, and ethnographic knowledge about the Mediterranean region." Historical Geography
ISBN: 9780631218906
Dimensions: 241mm x 165mm x 43mm
Weight: 1293g
784 pages