The Oxford Handbook of the Atlantic World: 1450-1850

This book focuses on the history of the Atlantic World from 1450-1820 and contains thirty-seven articles that offer a wide-ranging and authoritative account of the movement of people, plants, pathogens, products, and cultural practices around and within the Atlantic basin. As a result of these movements, new peoples, economies, societies, polities, and cultures arose in the lands and islands touched by the Atlantic Ocean, while others were destroyed. The articles in this volume seek to describe, explain, and, occasionally, challenge conventional wisdom concerning these path-breaking developments. They demonstrate connections, explore contrasts, and probe themes. During the four centuries encompassed by this collection, pan-Atlantic webs of association emerged that progressively linked people, objects, and beliefs across and within the region. Events in one corner of the Atlantic world had effects and reverberations thousands of miles away. This volume breaks down traditional barriers between the study of the several European Atlantic Empires, and their relationships with Africa and its peoples. The great virtue of thinking in Atlantic terms is that it encourages broad perspectives, unexpected comparisons, trans-national orientations, and expanded horizons.