Oceanic Histories is the first comprehensive account of world history focused not on the land but viewed through the 70% of the Earth's surface covered by water. Leading historians trace the history of the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans and seas, from the Arctic and the Baltic to the South China Sea and the Sea of Japan/Korea's East Sea, over the longue duree. Individual chapters trace the histories and the historiographies of the various oceanic regions, with special attention given to the histories of circulation and particularity, the links between human and non-human history and the...

Oceanic Histories is the first comprehensive account of world history focused not on the land but viewed through the 70% of the Earth's surface covered by water. Leading historians trace the history of the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans and seas, from the Arctic and the Baltic to the South China Sea and the Sea of Japan/Korea's East Sea, over the longue duree. Individual chapters trace the histories and the historiographies of the various oceanic regions, with special attention given to the histories of circulation and particularity, the links between human and non-human history and the...

Reveals a distinct trajectory of Islamic history that developed among Muslim merchant communities across the medieval Indian Ocean.

Argues that Qing China was not just a continental empire, but a maritime power protecting its interests at sea.

By exploring transnational networks involved in smuggling, privateering, slave trade, marronage, and corruption, Jeppe Mulich illuminates the entangled nature of imperial politics and colonial law in the maritime borderlands of the Caribbean during the age of revolutions.

Challenging common portrayals of Japan as a centuries-old whaling nation, Fynn Holm shows that many coastal communities in early modern Northeast Japan believed whales to be the incarnation of the god of the sea that brought fish to the shore, leading to violent anti-whaling protests that shocked the country.