Douglas Egerton, Alison Games, Donald R. Wright, Kris E. Lane, Jane G. Landers. The Atlantic World: A History, 1400-1888. Wheeling: Harlan Davidson Incorporated, 2007. 500 pp. $48.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-88295-245-1.
Reviewed by Gene R. Tucker
Published on H-TGS (April, 2010)
Commissioned by Thomas Adam (The University of Texas at Arlington)
Using the Atlantic Ocean as an organizing jor historians who frst used the Atlantic as a uni‐ principle has become very popular among histori‐ fying concept. The book focuses on “the societies ans in the last decade. Whether called “Atlantic transformed by the convergence of cultures fol‐ history” or “transatlantic history,” the study of the lowing Christopher Columbus’s momentous voy‐ linkages between peoples across the Atlantic age in 1492” (p. 1), which includes civilizations far basin has led to numerous essay collections, con‐ from the Atlantic’s shore, such as the Inca in Peru, ferences, an H-Net discussion network, and even a Amerindians along the Great Lakes, or Africans popular cofee-table book titled Atlantic Ocean: deep in the interior. The authors stress direct en‐ The Illustrated History of the Ocean That counters between people and even the indirect ef‐ Changed the World (2008). This work, The At‐ fects of events on discrete peoples in the four con‐ lantic World: A History, 1400-1888, is the frst tinents touching the Atlantic. These connections comprehensive textbook geared to the increasing and encounters pay little heed to political bound‐ number of college courses (and programs) dedi‐ aries. The fve authors note that historians “fre‐ cated to the history of the peoples of the Atlantic quently force transnational sagas into artifcial world. The book successfully portrays the inter‐ political frameworks” (p. 2), and that they will in‐ connectedness of people, commodities, and events stead “explore commonalities and convergences, across the Atlantic, much as Fernand Braudel did seeking larger patterns derived from the interac‐ with the Mediterranean decades ago, though, like tions of people around, within, and across the At‐ any textbook of such breadth, there are some mi‐ lantic” (pp. 2-3). The authors choose to begin their nor weaknesses. narrative around 1400 and fnish with the end of The authors begin with a short historiograph‐ slavery in the Western Hemisphere in 1888. ical introduction, defning the Atlantic world, the Chapter 1 presents a geographical, political, scope of the textbook, and (all too briefy) the ma‐ and socioeconomic overview of the Atlantic on H-Net Reviews the eve of Portugal’s expansion and Columbus’s ertheless, often the protagonists in the Atlantic 1492 voyage. The authors decide to stress the sim‐ story. ilarities among peoples in Africa, Europe, and the In chapters 3 and 4, the authors explore the Americas, not the “superfcial diferences that of‐ repercussions of European expansion into the ten shocked contemporaries” (p. 17). Their no‐ Americas and Africa. Chapter 3 discusses the ear‐ tions of what these societies had in common, how‐ ly empires of Spain and Portugal in the New ever, are decidedly vague. The authors say each World. The authors place due importance on Eu‐ society engaged in agriculture, trade, politics, and ropean use of mixed-race and multilingual people religion. This is true of every civilization. In chap‐ as cultural mediators, from Afro-Portuguese on ter 2 the authors lay the basis for an “Atlantic Sys‐ the east side of the Atlantic to people like Mal‐ tem,” noting that the European desire for exotic intzin on the western shores. These cultural and trade goods like spices and sugar led to explo‐ ethnic mestizos facilitated trade, political al‐ ration in the Atlantic. They also correctly note liances, and conquest throughout the Atlantic, of‐ that there were ordered states and civilizations ten becoming successful in two worlds. The au‐ ready to greet the Europeans in the Americas and thors also note that the Spanish and Portuguese Africa such as the Kongo and the Inca--the Euro‐ were successful in the New World because they peans did not simply dictate to or oppress bar‐ placed themselves at the top of existing imperial barous natives; they negotiated with similarly ad‐ structures. The Spanish did not dismantle Aztec or vanced peoples. Still, the second chapter ends Incan states and replace them with Spanish mod‐ with Columbus in the Caribbean, and the third be‐ els; they reaped the benefts of extant political gins with Spain’s expansion into the Americas-- and labor hierarchies, creating a new, hybridized not an Aztec discovery of Spain or a Beninese dis‐ society. Iberian success in the Americas prompted covery of Brazil. The authors emphasize why Eu‐ other Europeans, such as the English, French, and ropeans sought to explore beyond their horizons: Dutch, to try their hand at extracting value direct‐ commercial expansion (“it could well have been ly from the wider Atlantic world, transferring Eu‐ about cod in Newfoundland rather than gold in ropean competition to both Africa and America. the Caribbean,” p. 73), but they fail to explain how The role of unfree labor in this process is dis‐ it was that Europeans, and not Amerindians or cussed in chapters 5 and 6. Disease and slavery Africans (or Asians, for that matter), were capable played havoc on the numbers and structures of and willing to explore beyond their shores. Sever‐ several Amerindian groups and the concurrent in‐ al fairly recent, and popular, books ofer prospec‐ crease in the use of African slave labor dramati‐ tive answers, from the geographical-biological ex‐ cally changed the continent of Africa, as African planations of Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and polities struggled to continue the lucrative and ad‐ Steel (1997) to the sociopolitical musings of David vantageous trade in humans with the Spanish, Landes in The Wealth and Poverty of Nations Portuguese, and, increasingly, the British and the (1998). Even older works such as Frederick Turn‐ Dutch (a trade that was carried out on African, er’s Beyond Geography (1983) profer “spiritual” not European, terms). The authors also discuss and religious motivations for European expan‐ European migration to and settlement in the sion. The weight that the fve authors give to simi‐ American continents and the changing, but ever- larities among Africans, Amerindians, and Euro‐ present, trading and political accommodations peans perhaps leads them to ignore a fundamen‐ with native American nations. The fve authors tal diference, namely that although Europeans highlight that unfree labor systems existed not were never unbridled, omnipotent masters in only among the Europeans (slavery and inden‐ their dealings with other peoples, they were, nev‐
2 H-Net Reviews tured servitude) but among Amerindians and In chapter 13, the fve authors discuss, only Africans as well. too quickly, the industrial revolution and the rise Chapters 7 and 8 underscore the role played of capitalism. Market revolutions, new industrial by trade and “racial and cultural mixture” in the technologies, and the associated increase in Atlantic world. Trade, many Europeans found, transatlantic immigration and trade is presented was more transformative than religion in chang‐ as a result of an interconnected Atlantic society. ing the habits of natives. Commodities such as to‐ Textile production in Britain is tied to cotton bacco forged not only new relationships between farming in the U.S. South; the cessation of the disparate peoples but altered societies across the transatlantic slave trade is tied to vast internal mi‐ Atlantic, as everyone from English plowmen and grations of slaves in the Americas; new commer‐ African slaves in Brazil all clamored for the won‐ cial tastes in Europe and less slave labor are tied derfully “noxious weed.” The authors also note to changing African farming practices; advances the rise of new cultures in the Atlantic world: “De‐ in transportation in the northern Atlantic are tied spite attempts to create a ‘New’ Spain--or France, to the lack of industrial growth Latin America. All Holland, Sweden, or England--in the Americas, the of these trans-oceanic changes spotlight the con‐ linking of the Atlantic world resulted in the cre‐ nected nature of societies across national fron‐ ation of numerous mixed and creole, or locally tiers and highlight the narrowness of strictly na‐ born, populations with distinct, often non-Euro‐ tional histories. Chapter 14, the last in the book, pean cultural characteristics” (pp. 256-257). Chap‐ takes the story to 1888, when the Empire of Brazil ter 9 details the “shrinking Atlantic” as political legally abolished slavery. The economic impera‐ and military upheavals in one area (often Europe) tives of capitalism and new social sensibilities in had repercussions in the Americas and Africa. Europe and the United States are the primary fac‐ These events call attention to the very intercon‐ tors in the story of abolition, though the end of nectedness of the Atlantic region, as Abenaki Indi‐ slavery brings about new questions in the labor ans, for instance, attacked English settlements in market and engenders a change in the political re‐ North America as allies of the French in a war lations between peoples on both sides of the At‐ concerning the succession to the Hapsburg lantic. throne. Chapters 10, 11, and 12 discuss the revolu‐ For scholars of German migrations to the New tions that rocked the Atlantic world, from Ameri‐ World, the book ofers only a paucity of refer‐ ca to France, Haiti, and Latin America. Again, ences. The index provides only one reference to stress is placed on the notion that these revolu‐ Germans and two to pre-1492 Germanic peoples. tions were not merely “national” in scope, but Though a table on “European Migrants to the that they all had intense and important reverber‐ Americas, 1500-1800” (p. 161) notes that more ations throughout the Atlantic basin. The Ameri‐ German-speakers migrated to the New World can, French, and Haitian revolutions all con‐ than French-speakers, the text only states that cerned varying interpretations of personal free‐ “German-speaking migrants headed primarily for dom and liberty, notions not lost on the enslaved British American destinations” (p. 161). In one African laborers of the Atlantic world. The place (p. 267) the authors describe the German Haitian Revolution, which resulted in a “Black Re‐ penchant for retaining their language and cus‐ public,” was the impetus for resistance and revo‐ toms in places like Pennsylvania, though any rea‐ lution among slaves of African descent from the son for this is left unexplored. One page later, the United States to New Granada. authors do make a cogent observation concerning the transfer, retention, and hybridization of cul‐ ture, as well as the creation of ethnic identities:
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“In regions where Europeans from diferent king‐ century. Surely such inconsistencies can be doms settled in proximity, historians fnd more chalked up to the fact that fve authors collaborat‐ evidence of local formulation, rather than pristine ed on the book. transplanting, of ethnic identity. In North Ameri‐ The most glaring blemish of the book is the ca, German-speakers from discrete kingdoms and sometimes palpable anti-European bias in the principalities in the Holy Roman Empire became narrative. This is perhaps due to the fact that known as ‘Germans,’ and the polyglot people of none of the authors specialize in European histo‐ New Netherland, some of them Portuguese Jews, ry: two authors work on colonial American histo‐ became ‘Dutch.’ The creation of ethnic identity ry while the other three specialize primarily in was a complex process of interaction not only Africa, Africans, and peoples of African descent in with inhabitants of the colonies, but also the exi‐ the Americas. The authors do note that they “hope gencies of a new environment” (p. 268). In the to redress the conventional neglect of Africa and chapter on industrialization in the nineteenth Africans in Atlantic histories” (p. 5). This is not an century, the authors give very scant attention to unwelcome perspective, as this work laudably the cultural transfers and interactions of the new succeeds in bringing the contributions West transnational migrants, though the example of Africans made to Atlantic history into focus, but one John Christian Zimmerman from the state of some attempts at “redress” are confusing. In one Berg (p. 447) is portrayed as a typical nineteenth- sidebar, the authors make the bold contention: “If century business traveler. This lack of attention to Spanish and English authorities considered using transatlantic European migration in the nine‐ marriage to bring about political alliances or ce‐ teenth century is perhaps due to the authors' fo‐ ment loyalty of people in distant locations, they cus on unfree labor and their arbitrary decision may have come up with the idea from West to end their narrative in 1888, before the intense Africans” (p. 314), though marriage as a political immigration from eastern and southern Europe tool was a worldwide and age-old phenomenon. that peaked in the twentieth century. The authors commendably state their intention to The fve authors of The Atlantic World have dispense with hoary racialist and ethnocentric ably accomplished the daunting task of narrating theories about non-European peoples, disdainful‐ a history of such geographic scope and chronolog‐ ly quoting Hugh Trevor-Roper’s statement that the ical breadth, though there are a few faults in their African past consisted of nothing but “unreward‐ approach and story. Some of the maps are rather ing gyrations of barbarous tribes” (p. 18). In the sparse and unhelpful. One, on European religious same paragraph, however, the authors derisively divisions circa 1560 (p. 118), presents all of Britain note that “if one were inclined to seek the most and Holland as “Anglican/Calvinist infuenced.” glaring examples of unrewarding gyrations of Unfortunately, the color scheme also depicts barbarous tribes, the European-initiated Crusades North Africa as “Anglican/Calvinist infuenced,” might vie for top ranking” (p. 18). Though the au‐ though Geneva, Greece, and Russia are all frmly thors rightly note (pp. 158-159) that all societies, Roman Catholic! The authors devote most of a Amerindian, African, and European, had a form chapter to the transatlantic ramifcations of the of status akin to slavery, when they describe the United States’ Revolutionary War (chapter 10), Abenaki abduction of the Johnson family from though the nation’s 1787 constitutional conven‐ New Hampshire in 1754, they write that the “Indi‐ tion is ignored as a merely national matter (p. 4). ans adopted six-year-old Sylvanus” (p. 292). His Despite this declaration, the same U.S. Constitu‐ mother, Susanna Johnson, would probably not tion is later presented as part of an Atlantic-wide have used such a kind word as “adoption.” The reactionary trend at the end of the eighteenth- oddest example of bias comes from a sidebar on
4 H-Net Reviews names. The article points out that scholars often mistakenly called the nation of Haiti “St. Domin‐ go”; that many write “L’Ouverture” when Tous‐ saint only wrote his surname as “Louverture”; and that though people often write “Genêt,” the Frenchman instead wrote his name “Edmond Charles Genet,” without the circumfex. The side‐ bar bitterly and senselessly concludes: “Typical is David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize-winning John Adams (2001), which commits all three errors; one wonders how many awards the biography would have garnered if its author, along with the editors at Simon and Schuster, could not correctly spell ‘Britain’ or ‘Monroe’ or some other name that white scholars perceive as important” (p. 374). One wonders if the authors actually believe “white scholars” are genetically or socially predis‐ posed to misspelling nouns they fnd unimpor‐ tant, or why such “white scholars” would not think the white Frenchman Genet was anything but important. Still, The Atlantic World is quite successful in portraying the Atlantic world as a region of com‐ plicated, interlocking social, political, and eco‐ nomic networks. The fve authors have created an important and accessible textbook for undergrad‐ uates. It is relatively inexpensive and easy to read; it also contains numerous vignettes, enter‐ taining sidebars, black and white maps and illus‐ trations, and fairly extensive bibliographies at the end of each chapter. For graduate courses, it may serve as a decent background primer, but it would behoove graduate students to wrestle with the ideas in the more focused secondary sources the authors point to in their work. For scholars unacquainted with the Atlantic as an organizing principle for historical study, the book is an excel‐ lent introduction. Hopefully, these fve authors, or their colleagues, will bring the history of the At‐ lantic up to the present day in a subsequent text.
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Citation: Gene R. Tucker. Review of Egerton, Douglas; Games, Alison; Wright, Donald R.; Lane, Kris E.; Landers, Jane G. The Atlantic World: A History, 1400-1888. H-TGS, H-Net Reviews. April, 2010.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=26172
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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