> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 23 April 2014
  • ISBN: 9780141977164
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 816
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

The Great Sea

A Human History of the Mediterranean




The acclaimed history of the Mediterranean, from the ancient world to the present

For over three thousand years, the Mediterranean Sea has been one of the great centres of civilization. David Abulafia's The Great Sea is the first complete history of the Mediterranean, from the erection of temples on Malta around 3500 BC to modern tourism. Ranging across time and the whole extraordinary space of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Jaffa, Genoa to Tunis, and bringing to life pilgrims, pirates, sultans and naval commanders, this is the story of the sea that has shaped much of world history.

  • Published: 23 April 2014
  • ISBN: 9780141977164
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 816
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

About the author

David Abulafia

David Abulafia has written extensively on the political, economic and social history of the Mediterranean, especially Sicily, southern Italy and the Catalan world. His books, several of which have been translated into Italian, Spanish or German, include The Two Italies, A Mediterranean Emporium and The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms 1200-1500, The New Cambridge Medieval History, volume 5, c.1198-1300, which he edited, and Frederick II. He has also written over a hundred historical articles. He had lectured in several European countries and in the United States, Israel and Japan, and he regularly visits Italy for his research. He has been awarded the King Roger II Prize in Sicily for his books on the history of the island. He strongly believes that historians should attempt to convey the results of their research to a wider public. He is Professor of Mediterranean History at Cambridge University and he has been a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, since 1974.

Also by David Abulafia

See all

Praise for The Great Sea

The greatest living historian of the Mediterranean

Andrew Roberts

A towering achievement. No review can really do justice to the scale of Abulafia's achievement: in its epic sweep, eye for detail and lucid style.

Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

Brocaded with studious observation and finely-tuned scholarship, the overall effect is mesmerising.

Ian Thomson, Independent

A memorable study, its scholarship tinged with indulgent humour and an authorial eye for bizarre detail.

Jonathan Keates, Sunday Telegraph

The story is teeming with colourful characters, and Abulafia wears his scholarship lightly, even dashingly.

Simon Sebag Montefiore, Financial Times