Dimensions
162 x 240 x 52mm
For over three thousand years, the Mediterranean Sea has been one of the great centres of world civilization. From the time of Troy until the middle of the nineteenth century, human activity on and around the Sea has decisively shaped much of the course of world history. David Abulafia's The Great Sea is the first complete history of what has happened on and immediately around the Mediterranean, from the erection of the mysterious temples on Malta around 3500 BC to the recent reinvention of the Mediterranean's shores as a tourist destination.
The focus of the book is on places and individuals, and shows the degree to which human beings have decisively shaped this extraordinary environment. Abulafia describes the teeming port cities that have been particularly influential or representative during particular periods - cities such as Amalfi, Alexandria, Venice, Trieste and Salonika - which he argues have prospered because of their ability to allow many different peoples, religions and identities to co-exist within sometimes very confined spaces right up to the twentieth century.
