Table of Contents

Introduction 1 Atlantic legends and Atlantic reality before the Iberian discoveries 2 A new Atlantic: from the fifteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth centuries 3 The Atlantic and the Iberians: sixteenth to seventeenth centuries 4 The Atlantic and the growth of the naval powers: the seventeenth century 5 The golden age of the colonial Atlantic: the eighteenth century 6 Men and powers in the Atlantic: seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 7 The Atlantic in the nineteenth century: tradition and change 8 The Atlantic in the twentieth century 9 Conclusion

About the Author

Paul Butel

Reviews

'This ambitious book, which ranges from the legends of Atlantis and the voyages of St. Brenden to the dual of NATO and the Warsaw Pact in the 1980s is a triumph of lucid compression.' - Frank Mclynn, Literary Review

'The value of this important book can be found in its ambition, breath of learning and distinct perspective. It will serve a wide community of historians who touch on the ocean as a corrective to the prevailing literature, a check on Anglo-centric assumptions.' - Reviews in History

'Informed by his own important research Butels book is a fine contribution to the available literature and will serve to deepen Anglo-American understanding in this area.' - Mariners Mirror

'Professor Butels histoy of the Atlantic Ocean is one of the most important books to appear in recent years.' - International Journal of Maritime History