A review by tomleetang
The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia

5.0

A sprawling, mind-boggling, occasionally unwieldy but ultimately awe-inspiring human history of the oceans. Contains everything from the earliest exploration of Polynesia (back in the 1000s BC) and nascent maritime trade between Egypt, Arabia and Persia, through Asian thalassocracies and the European mapping of the seas, right on up to how the world wars changed the balance of power at sea and the birth of container shipping. How Abulafia has managed to synthesise information that incorporates the history and geography of regions across the globe into a cohesive book is just insane.