The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and their Shared History, 1400–1900

Great book!

This is a great book - the background reading evident in the text is itself quite awe-inspiring. The author somehow manages to combine "old-fashioned" narrative history with "new-fashioned" thematic history (eg women, slaves etc). A very good companion to Elliott's Empires of the Atlantic.However, the paperback edition cries out for an editor. The typographical and grammar/syntax errors are so many as to become very annoying to the reader.For example, the author means "East Anglian" not "East Anglican". "Cloth" as a noun does not have an e on the end (and if it was meant to be an unmarked quotation, use "sic" so we know). Ships were sunk not "sank". Most ships fire cannon not "canon". A "Field Marshall" is a tractor, not a military rank. Europeans and natives "pair" (in the context of a discussion on miscegenation), they don't "pare". Amherst's smallpox-laden blankets were not "the first known effort at biological warfare" (that would be news to the ancient Chinese and Greeks: see A Mayor, "Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World").Guerre is feminine so it is "la petite guerre" not "la petit guerre". The Breton port is St Malo, not "St Milo". It is a levee en masse not "mass". The Arabic "koran/kuran" is written with qaf and therefore is never transliterated as "khoran" (and if this was meant to be a quote, unmarked of course, "sic" should have been used). It is dissension not "dissention". Being pulled apart by four horses was not "drawing and quartering".Full stops appear in the middle of sentences and the next word is capitalised. Subordinate clauses do not agree with the dominant clause. Entire sentences comprise one subordinate clause. There are typographical errors that the most elementary spellcheck program would detect.Some of these errors are so egregious they suggest a degree of illiteracy in the author (which is inconsistent with the text and treatment of the sources). The presentation is an embarrassment to Cambridge and the author.Still, ignoring this, heartily recommended.

Given the cost of textbooks these days, this book is not only affordable, it is almost a steal. Published by one of the world's leading publishing companies and complete with attractive pictures, maps, and illustrations, it makes arguments about the creation of a multicultural and multicontinental world that most even intelligent and well read people have probably never imagined before. This book will both entertain as well as educate. Sometimes it might even irritate. Many will not agree with a number of the book's conclusions about women, indigenous peoples, and the role of Europeans and non indigenous North Americans. Probably this is a major reason for reading the volume as it does not simply say what people expect one to say.