Gibbins has for a long been fascinated with shipwrecks and his expertise in both archaeology and diving helped him writing this book. The author has personally dived on more than half the wrecks discussed in the book. The other cases, he has drawn on historical records and accounts. “Wrecks offer special access to history at all…levels,” he writes. Several archaeological sites such as a wreck represents a single event in which most of the objects were in use at that time and can often be closely dated. Maritime archaeologist Gibbins writes an entertaining and knowledgeable survey of world history with a seafaring spin that makes reading it very enjoyable.

I'm not a huge history reader, but the shipwrecks drew me in. This was interesting, but ultimately quite dry and not what I was looking for -- I think I was hoping for more drama or excitement because: SHIPWRECKS!? When Gibbins wrote about his personal diving experiences, I was much more engaged than during the straight recounting of historical facts. This is definitely well-researched and well-written, so I'm glad I gave it a whirl even if ultimately it wasn't for me. I think a lot of people who regularly enjoy reading straight-up history books will appreciate this more -- I'm planning to get a copy for my father-in-law (who reads ALL of the thick historical books) because I think he'll be into it.

Not a light beach read. Gibbins gives a detailed history of the period around each wreck as well as an inventory of what was found. There are wonderful description of what each item was intended for, inventory numbers, the trade or fight involved in it's sailing and sinking. It's fascinating but reads like a textbook. A history lovers dream but in order to appreciate the detail involved it takes time & effort.

The story is part autobiography, part human history, part ship building techniques, part naval history. It's a wondrous tome for a history buff but casual readers will not be engaged.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance reader copy of this story. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#AHistoryoftheWorldinTwelveShipwrecks #DavidGibbins # St.Martin'sPress #Netgalley #navalhistory #shiphistory #Archaeology

In A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, David Gibbons takes you through twelve shipwrecks from an archeological standpoint and explains what the discoveries mean for our understanding of history. My personal favorite chapters were on the Golden Age of Greece and the HMS Terror. More than half of the shipwrecks in the book Gibbons has personally excavated or dived on.

Twelve Shipwrecks wasn't my cup of tea. Despite being about shipwrecks, it was a bit too dry for me. It felt more like reading individual academic papers than reading a whole book (which means you could skip chapters if you wanted). It also worked off the assumption that the readers already have a very strong base knowledge about history and terms (this was more apparent in the earlier chapters). Some chapters weren't a problem for me because I had studied the subjects in depth before, but others I struggled with because I didn't know as much. The scholarship was great, but just know this would not be friendly to those with limited historical knowledge and studies since it's dense at times. 

I bumped this up from a two-star to a three-star review because I really did enjoy the whole chapter on the HMS Terror. Here, the writing was accessible, the connections were historically clear, and it felt tangible and entertaining in a way I was missing in many of the earlier chapters. Gibbons writing was the most engaging when he was exploring the humanity of the shipwrecks and the lost lives.

If you've read A History of the World in 6 Glasses, this is not quite that. Twelve Shipwrecks is a bit more textbook-like and a little less focused on entertaining. But if you love archeological dives and all the nitty gritty that comes with it, this is going to be your new favorite. I recommend giving it a shot if you think you'll be interested; it just unfortunately was not 100% for me.

I'm interested in history and archaeology, and A History of the Word in Twelve Shipwrecks provides a fascinating exploration of both by esteemed underwater archaeologist David Gibbins. The author is an accomplished diver, and his firsthand experience with undersea wrecks and artifacts lends the book a unique and personal perspective. It is exceptionally well written and researched, and each shipwreck is described alongside a wealth of historical context, and the effect is scholarly and informative. From the Bronze age through the twentieth century, the author connects different shipwrecks into a cohesive historical narrative that examines the way that ships contributed to the spread of people, goods, ideas, language, and culture.

If you are interested in the role of boats and ships in human history, and the unique insights that shipwrecks can provide as snapshots in time of people, place, and culture, this will be an interesting and enjoyable read for you. It isn't the type of book to tear through breathlessly, but I enjoyed it leisurely, a little at a time.

Thanks to David Gibbins, St. Martin's Press, and Netgalley for providing me with a free advance reader copy of the book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was a fascinating read!! I'm obsessed with the Titanic and shipwrecks, in general. When I think about shipwrecks, beyond the history of the ship itself, I've never thought much about them outside of diving them. I now know that shipwrecks often serve as time capsules that teach us not only about the lives of those aboard and the state of the world at the time the ship sank, but also can expand on our knowledge of things you wouldn't associate with a ship such as the wine and ceramic industry. We learn about the money and valuable object of the time. We've even recovered written documents that give first hand accounts of the world. There's archaeology, sociology, and history all interwoven in this book and I highly recommend it! Oh, I also loved learning that not all shipwrecks are explored in the water. The Viking chapter discusses how some shipwrecks have been pulled from the water, or have had the water pulled from around them.

This was an interesting exploration of history told through twelve different shipwrecks and by examining their treasures under the sea.

I enjoyed this book for its history and look at how people lived in the past. My favorite part was the information about people who were sailing aboard these ships. Their personal artifacts found in the shipwrecks give a fascinating glimpse into their lives, their belongings, and what they considered important enough to bring on the voyage.

Personally, I didn’t care for the list of guns and cannonballs or detailed scuba information. I would have liked more information about what was found on the wrecks and what that said about the people who were onboard.

The author’s experience excavating shipwrecks around the world really shines through in the book. I highly recommend it for history lovers and diving enthusiasts alike!

4.5 / 5.0 A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks by D Gibbins was an enjoyable read for me.

I love history, I love archeology, and I love shipwrecks, so it was a perfect fit. The writing is a little dense and could be dry at times, but the overall writing was good and the information was fascinating. I have a number of history fans in my family and so will be adding this to my gift list this year for them.

Until Next Time,
MC

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for access to this book for review.

I really tried with this book but just couldn't get into it. I even tried to listen to it as an audiobook but it was just boring. The author included a lot of research but it bogged down the story and some of the details were hard to follow. Unfortunately, I gave up after only about 10%.

The premise of this book was absolutely fascinating! And Gibbins excels in those chapters about dives/shipwrecks he got to participate in; there's something about experience that lends an added gravitas and level of excitement to a topic that just isn't there otherwise. (As could be said about the other chapters, heh; they were interesting enough, but paled in comparison--and read _very_ academically/textbook-like--to these.)

I appreciated that Gibbins included a couple links to pictures; they truly are worth a thousand words, and I think the book would have been even better to include them inline, or include _any_ pictures inline and still link out to these ones. :D What can I say? I like pictures, haha!

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Cool focal points like shipwrecks to talk about global history is a way in, right? To talk about politics, global leaders, mythical/folkloric groups, the science of building, and art like pottery by what was discovered and found in the shipwrecks is an approach because so much can be revealed however I think Gibbins went a little too far into the history and not enough into the shipwreck itself. The intrigue is in the discovery and whatever excavation or things that can be understood (even if it's left at the bottom of the sea) like the way [book:The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked, and Found|31159619] approached it and the history comes second- in this one the history came first and the ship came second.

Of course there are some that are more interesting to me than others-- I'm always fascinated by the Vikings and even the Mary Rose being retrofitted with guns was cool but overall the book lost me in too many very specific details, but that's more my reading preference rather than a knock against the book. And I'm always intrigued by how someone trains and learns as Gibbins details at various points in the book- his biography embedded in the story was well-woven.

A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks is a deeply fascinating read - part adventure story and part history - that captures, as described, the literal history of the world through what we learn from excavating and/or diving shipwrecks. Despite being a history novel, the writing style is engaging and keeps you pulled in throughout! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

I was really hoping this book was going to be an underwater version of A History of the World in Six Glasses, but (ironically?) it was a lot drier than that. This history book just wasn't able to capture my attention.

Such coverage!

A boat with bronze trimmings, buried with its builder.
Marble from the Byzantine era.
Explorers frozen in the Arctic ice.

What was going on in the world? Technology? Trade? Tools?
Gibbins packs it all in.

I enjoyed this non-fiction read through world history even without much knowledge of ships or diving. Definitely worth trying.

Thank you to the author David Gibbins, publishers Kensington Books, and TLC Book Tours, for an advance paperback copy of THE WITCH HITCH. Thank you also to NetGalley for an accomanying widget. All views are mine.

I'm normally a huge fan of academic nonfiction books, and this subject is one of my areas of interest. Unfortunately, I DNFed A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN TWELVE SHIPWRECKS because I couldn't remain engaged with the material. Based on the title, topic, and description, I fully expected a chronological narrative punctuated by shipwrecks. Instead, the book is formatted as a great list of shipwrecks, each of which is comprised of a list of objects found, and what those objects say about the historical period.

This information is interesting, but the form made it feel as though I was reading someone's notes or homework. The book lacks propulsion and intrigue. I just couldn't get into it. I think a different reader would have found this fascinating, but it just wasn't for me.

Rating: DNF @ 26%
Recommend? Maybe, if you don't mind dry, academic writing
Finished: Apr 3 '24
Format: Digital arc, Kindle, NetGalley, paperback, SMPI
Read this book if you like:
⏳️ History
⚓️ nautical history
🪙 treasure analysis
🔬 applied science

What an interesting book! I can't wait to pick up the published copy to see all of the photos. I had never heard of most of these, but really enjoyed learning about this type of history.

This was a great book that I'd highly recommend to anyone interested in a different way to view history. Shipwrecks are fascinating because they are such a perfect time capsule and David Gibbins does an excellent job of using each wreck to explore the world as represented by each ship: trade, economics, politics, exploration, food, and more. Many factoids would come up that had me thinking "what a great idea for a book" all on their own.

Occasionally the chapters wandered a little bit- probably the danger of trying to tell the history of the world as it stood at any one point in time. I found the sections where Gibbins described his own experiences diving many of the wrecks quite interesting. The idea of knowing that there is still more to learn and discover in these wrecks and possible future ones is always exciting.

I recommend this book to history lovers, ship lovers, and people interested in new ways of looking at history to explore what life was like at different points in history.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Princess Fuzzypants here: This is a pretty cool book. Not only is the author an archeologist but he is a diver who has not only visited the wrecks but also discovered new and revealing things in them. Much information from the past was either discounted, proved or enhanced by these wrecks. The story is told in both the size and shape of the vessel and in the cargo that has been retrieved from them. History tells us a story. We just need to know how to read it and how to connect the dots. This book does a lot of dot connecting.

One can admire the fortitude and courage of those who enter the depths to bring forth the light. It is treacherous in so many ways, not the least being the shifting of currents and rock. The book goes deeply into the minutiae of the finds and how they disprove or substantiate previous beliefs. It is a book that would be good reading for the student and the curious.

Four purrs and two paws up.

As a huge fan of the Jack Howard adventures, which I knew were inspired by dives undertaken by David Gibbins, I was excited to get my hands on an early copy of A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks. A part of me was disappointed that there weren’t more first-person accounts of the dives, narrative play-by-play of discovering and exploring these sunken wrecks, but that’s entirely okay because what is there – the history – is absolutely fascinating.

In some cases, the book explores history through long-forgotten treasures, the kind of discoveries that every adventurer dreams of. Yes, there are gold and jewels to be found, religious and cultural artifacts as well, but Gibbins explores what they mean, what they tell us about the past, as opposed to what they’re worth. Where the book gets really interesting is in the exploration of everyday artifacts, things like plates and bowls and construction equipment, using them to create a picture of what life was like hundreds of years ago.

Once I got past my initial disappointment over the emphasis on history as opposed to shipwrecks, I began to see the archaeological process involved, and that was what fascinated me most. It’s often painstaking work, accomplished in the harshest of conditions, requiring a wealth of preparation. It’s not like you can just sit on an old battlefield or in an old homestead and sift through layers of dirt at your leisure – you’re at the mercy of the depths, your air supply, the current, and the weather. Sometimes all you can do is catalog what you see, knowing that the next storm could bury it, leaving your eyes the authority on the matter.

A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks can be a dry, scholarly read, but as such it’s a remarkable one. This is a work of David Gibbins, archaeologist and historian, not David Gibbins, adventure author, so you do need to set your expectations. But, as I tell my wife every week when she asks if they found more wood on the Curse of Oak Island, I don’t watch for the treasure, I watch for the history, the little discoveries of pottery and nails, not the big ones, and that’s what this is all about.

I thought this book was really fascinating and found it interesting why the author chose to call it “a history….” I know very little about underwater archaeology and thought those aspects were interesting, but ultimately appreciated the early chapters connections to trade and the ever increasing globalization present. I found the chapters about more recent wrecks a little more challenging because they didn’t really connect to the earlier narrative, but they were still interesting (and devastating) on their own. Overall, I really enjoyed this!