Stars: 4.5

I saw this on NetGalley and I thought it would be an excellent book for the “Features the Ocean” prompt on the 52 Book Club Challenge, so I grabbed it. I wasn’t sure how it would go, if maybe this might be too ambitious a project and if the author would be trying too hard to make a grand historical theory using various shipwrecks. Gibbins is an archaeologist and he brought that expertise to the various wrecks by placing them within their time and place in history, all to great effect. He is also a novelist which came through in his ability to weave a story about the people associated with the various ships.

This was just a fascinating way to look at history, especially in terms of economics. Until the advent of the standardized modern railway, shipping was the fastest, and most profitable, way to move goods. Even in our own time, I am not sure we fully appreciate how much comes to us via cargo ships. So looking at shipwrecks, and the impact such wrecks could have, is illuminating. But the thing I liked most about this book, and what I think Gibbins did extremely well, was bring to life the people that inhabited these boats. The discussion about the SS Gairsoppa, a British ship from India that sunk in World War II, highlighted the multicultural nature of the crew and how they were run to accommodate different religious beliefs; for example, the cooks on board vessels were generally Portuguese sailors from Goa, recruited because they could prepare food for both the Indian Muslims and the Christian British. And when Gibbins highlights the wreck of the Tang Chinese ship, the focus is on the trade between China and the Arabian states, a fascinating trade route that gives insight into the world around the Indian Ocean from the 700s to the late 800s with the added bonus of examining the classic stories in Arabian Nights.

I think this book, much like Colin Woodward’s history of the Caribbean pirates, will be of interest to the lay reader; no knowledge of archaeology is necessary. Instead, a reader that brings a curiosity about the wilder world who would like a well-written, big-tent overview of world history will find this a wonderfully entertaining read. My only sadness is that since this is an ARC, there were no photos and I would have loved to have seen images of some of the items discovered on the wrecks, so I will be doing some googling!

I loved that each of the Twelve Shipwrecks had a unique story to tell. With hundreds on record and even more yet to be discovered, Gibbins has chosen each one with a discerning eye. Personal favorites include the Dover Wreck, the oldest seagoing vessel ever found; the Marzamemi Wreck which contained "28 marble columns" fit for a Byzantine Church; and the Belitung Wreck, which contained 57,000 Changsha bowls and priceless metals. And of course the legendary Wreck of the Mary Rose! I hope to see that one in particular someday. Others include the Uluburun Wreck; the Plemmirio Wreck, the Roskilde Wreck, the Santo Christo de Castel, The Royal Anne Galley, the HMS Terror and the SS Gairsoppa!

However, this one required some effort to get through. Factually, it is flawless and Gibbins is clearly a master of his field. Structurally though, it is cumbersome and needs refinement. First, Gibbins introduces the shipwreck and describes what was found. He then posits where it was sailing to and from, asking with the known evidence for both. These portions are great, but you have to sift through a lot to find them. To include as much "world" as possible, Gibbins incorporates temporally adjacent events or loosely tied literary references. A single artifact may be the only link to several pages of surplus information. I often found myself simply googling the shipwrecks to make sure I was still on track. This book would greatly benefit from footnotes and illustrations, which of course may be forthcoming. If you check it out on NetGalley, I recommend having a notebook and an encyclopedia to assist with the terminology. Thankfully Gibbins' enthusiasm and passion for shipwrecks convinced me to stick with it. There's an excellent book buried here if you have the patience to dig it up.

Thank you St. Martin's Press for approving "A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks" by David Gibbins for me on Netgalley!

A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks is about as straightforward as a title can be. The author, David Gibbins, discusses the historical context around twelve different shipwrecks and their significance.

Each chapter covers a different ship in chronological order. This book does not need to be read as a whole. For research (or interest) purposes, each chapter is presented in such a way that they can be read individually.

I would have liked to see more visuals in each chapter. It probably took me twice as long as it should have to read through this book because I spent a lot of time “googling” for maps and other images to accompany each shipwreck.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley!

Shipwrecks offer glimpses into past civilizations through objects preserved on the ocean floor. This book weaves together stories of significant sunken vessels, spanning continents and centuries.

This is not a history book but an archeology book. There’s no sweeping narrative here, but anecdotes of how objects bring history to life. The information is interesting, but the lack of a strong narrative arc makes the book difficult to follow. The content is interesting but might best be read in small doses.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Thank you for the ARC! There were many things I enjoyed about this book: the history, the premise, the authors writing.

However, I wished there had been more information on the shipwrecks themselves. There’s so much fascinating information attached to the wrecks and I would have loved to know more about what treasures were found underwater and how that related to the history itself. Overall a nice read.

Thanks in advance to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

In theory, this should be my ideal read, and indeed was one of my most anticipated nonfiction reads of the year. Unfortunately, this book just missed the mark for me. The concept is amazing, but the execution reads more like a textbook than a Nat Geo documentary. It lacked the entertainment value I anticipated. That said, chapters that covered wrecks the author dived tended to be more engaging. However, collectively, the book wasn’t particularly cohesive. For individuals with less historical background, the book would have certainly benefited from more illustrations (it’s been a long time since I was in a class that discussed oxhide ingots). But that still wouldn’t have been sufficient to save the overall style of the book.

I was initially very excited to read A History of the World in 12 Shipwrecks. I love to read nonfiction sea faring micro histories.

I definitely see an audience for this book and I love forward to recommending it to others. However, it just did not hit the mark for me. The chapters seemed to draw on and on, and spiral into other subjects. I had hoped each shipwreck would be written as its own micro history that would flow more easily while reading, although I realize this a my personal opinion of the writing.

Booksellers this book would be a great hand sell with books like The Perfect Storm, Sailing the Graveyard Sea and The Wager.

This digital review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. Huge thanks to Netgalley and St.Martins Press for my review copy!

A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks by David Gibbins is a highly recommended history based around 12 shipwrecks written by an expert in both archaeology and diving. In the prologue Gibbons makes it clear that the twelve shipwrecks he covers provide a springboard for looking at the wider historical context. Shipwrecks are unique because it represents a collection of objects used at the time of the shipwreck and thus can be closely dated. This can offer new historical insights into the past.

The shipwrecks examined are: The Dover Boat constructed in 1575-1520 BC; Royal cargoes at the time of Tutankhamun in 14th century BC and the Uluburun wreck; a Classical Greece wreck off the Aegean coast of Turkey from the 5th century BC; a shipwreck in the Mediterranean from the Roman Empire in the 2nd century AD; 6th century AD Christianity and early Byzantium; Tang China, the Land of Gold, and Addasid Islam in the 9th century AD; 11th century AD Viking warship of King Cnut the Great; the Mary Rose, the flagship of Henry VIII, 1545;the Santo Christo de Castello a Dutch ship from 1667; The Royal Anne Galley, 1721; the HMS Terror, 1848; and the SS Gairsoppa, destroyed by a Nazi U-boat in the Atlantic during World War II. (The final version will include illustrations, an index, bibliography, endnotes, and resources.)

These shipwrecks are the starting point to a larger discussion of world history. It is well-researched and includes many ties into a wider historical context of the time the ship would have been sea worthy. The people, the cargo, the spread of the materials they carried and the beliefs they held are all tied together with the 12 significant shipwrecks and the insight they provide into the times in which they sailed.

Admittedly, I found some of the shipwrecks and their historical context more interesting than others, but A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks will appeal to those who enjoy history and especially maritime history. Thanks to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, X, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

My wife read this instead of me. She did not star rate it on goodreads, but netgalley forces a star rating.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in return for an honest review. (Well, my husband did and he outsourced the review to me https://www.goodreads.com/bikeboy). I declined to give it a star rating because I am a notoriously tough grader and my feelings are too nuanced to boil down to a simple numerical rating.

This book is well worth reading to learn how historical knowledge is constructed. But no one book, especially one this short, will teach you the history of the world. The 12 shipwrecks are all related to western civ; Asia & Oceana are not represented except for one European ship wrecked on the way back from Asia. (Read Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia to learn about Oceana.)

That said, shipwrecks are a valuable source of material culture clues because they are a point in time sample of people doing something. They are not (except in one case) funerary objects. These objects were used by people for specific purposes. The location of the wrecks and what they were transporting also illuminates the types of people who go to sea and their motivations.

People went to sea to explore, to get rich, and to go to war. When their trips were interrupted, what were they carrying? This is a fantastic opportunity for scholarship and this book gives us a peek into the work of shipwreck archeologists.

I learned that, just as climate scientists can tell how warm a period was by O16/O18 (oxygen isotope) ratios in stalactites/stalagmites, they can also tell how warm the climate was where the victims in shipwrecks grew up. O16/O18 ratios in the molars showed that the one of the archers (skeletal asymmetry) brought along to protect a European ship was African.

When I was working in a Space Sciences lab, a metrology expert I worked with had earned her PhD in materials science at U of Cambridge (where the author teaches) studying trace elements and isotope ratios in bronze church bells. The coins, ingots and metal objects in the shipwrecks also tell a fascinating story.

I wish the book had explained more about the science of archaeology, ocean currents/wind patterns, and ship designs--or the historical context of the ships, and the reasons they went out to sea--instead of just skimming along the surface of many topics.

I'm now going to have to read A History of the World in Sixteen Shipwrecks

A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks by David Gibbins combines a survey history with memoir and archeology. Using the shipwrecks to frame the work, the reader journeys chronologically from the second millennium BCE to the Second World War.

Each chapter focuses on a single vessel. Gibbins describes the likely or known circumstances that led to the sinking, its rediscovery, archeological findings and the wider context of the time period. It allows Gibbins to share both his first-hand experience diving on some of the featured wrecks as well as to showcase his knowledge and research to highlight the trade networks, travel and warfare of the different eras.

It's an interesting book that follows the typical framework of a history of ___ in ___ objects. Unfortunately, due to the short length of the work, none of the ships are explored with a great deal of depth. We get a succinct summary of the time period, some discussion of life on the ship and the process of recovering item from the wrecks. In general, I found the earlier wrecks more difficult to stay invested in, as Gibbins could not pull from the same depth of sources as in the latter chapters. Gibbons is clearly a passionate and invested author, and some chapters, such as the one focused on World War II or the Mary Rose would have made for great essays.

Worth a read for historians, marine archeologists or those interested in any of the time periods featured, but not something for the general reader.

What an interesting and entertaining way to learn about or brush up on history. I had no idea so much knowledge about our past could be gained from the objects found on a shipwreck.

From a Bronze Age ship uncovered in Dover to a World War II ship, underwater archeologist David Gibbins does an excellent job of tying our past and present together in an informative narrative. What could easily have been a dry rehash of history is instead an engaging look, through an archeologist's eye, at different eras in history and what artifacts tell us about our past. Even though I enjoyed the ancient shipwrecks more than the recently uncovered ones, I found all twelve enlightening.

If you like history and archeology, I think you will enjoy this book.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The publication date is April 2, 2024.

Shipwrecks provide an incredible opportunity for scientists to explore the past and to draw conclusions about their finds. This book purports to capsulize human history through the exploration of twelve shipwrecks over the course of time. In it, the author tells not just the story of the ships themselves, their cargo and the people who sailed them, but also how people of different cultures, religion and ideas migrated from one place to another.

Perhaps because I grew up on the shores of one of the Great Lakes, I have always been fascinated by shipwrecks and what can be learned from them, so I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, I found it to be more like a college-level textbook than something a reader would pick up for fun.

The author obviously knows a lot about the subject, and he writes well, just not in a manner that I enjoy. Each chapter focuses on a different wreck, and there was no flow from one chapter to the next, which did little to show how history flowed from one time period to another. I guess I was hoping for less detailed history and more about each shipwreck – what caused the ship to sink, artifacts found, etc. – possibly things that would have been more prominent in a television show than a book.

Very thoroughly researched and broadly interesting, but I struggled with reading this book. I think reading it digitally was a struggle because I could not flip through the pages and reference back to events with ease. I also don't have enough established knowledge prehistory or antiquity for those sections to flow with any sort of ease.

Let me begin by saying this is a ARC review, and thus many of these issue may be resolved in the final copy.

That being said, I had a rough time with about half of this book. A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks is exactly what the title describes--a look across history through the lens of twelve shipwrecks covering ancient times to WWII. Each shipwreck stands on its own (which may be good or bad), but together, they give a general overview of the history of sea travel and how that has reflected the state of the world.

My biggest problem with this book was the lack of maps, pictures, diagrams, or a timeline. Again, these may be present in the final copy, in which case, things would read much smoother. However, I was frequently having to look things up--the history of an individual, a picture of a specific type of coin, or a timeline for an ancient civilization. This extra work made the reading slow, and for the first several chapters, I found myself skimming large chunks of writing because I didn't have time to do more research and couldn't connect what was going on. As the wrecks came closer to modern times, this became less of a problem, but the problem overall could be solved with the aforementioned additions.

Gibbins has personally spent time diving at many of these wrecks, and his personal insight and experiences at the sites were really interesting to read about. I wish there was more of these anecdotes to make the book really unique rather than just a history book, and pictures from his dives would be a fantastic addition. There was also a lot of interesting history, although there was a lot of repetition and some tangents that took away from the main points Gibbins was trying to make.

Overall, Twelve Shipwrecks was interesting, and I learned quite a bit. However, the earlier chapters suffer from a lack of maps, images, and timelines, and more of Gibbins's personal experiences would help set this book apart. 2.5 stars rounded up.

Being a fan of both history and shipwrecks, this book was a good fit for me, and I especially liked the author's personal experience with underwater archaeology and discussion of the logistics of scuba diving and its impact on how the work progresses. Some chapters will be of more interest than others , depending on the readers' favorite time periods, but there was fascinating finds in every chapter. I particularly enjoyed the Mary Rose and the Terror.

Recommended reading and thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

This would be great for people with a more than entry level knowledge of archeology, but it was just too dry and non-narrative to keep my interest. It felt like there were sections that were just lists, and there was little to no unique voice here to create any emotional attachment to the events or wrecks.

This book was so informative and well-researched. David Gibbins brings twelve different periods of time to life and then weaves them all together. I learned quite a bit from this book, even about historical periods that I have already thoroughly researched previously. David Gibbins is such a wonderful writer as well, and each chapter felt more like a story to me than just a description of the people and state of the world during the era of each wreck. Fans of history and wrecks should definitely check out this book, you will not be disappointed.

A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks by David Gibbins a fascinating journey through the history of humanity as seen through the lens of twelve shipwrecks. From the Bronze Age to World War Two, Gibbins explores how these wrecks reveal not only the lives and cultures of the people who sailed them, but also the broader historical contexts and transformations that shaped their eras.

There was a lot to like in this book. Gibbins combines his academic expertise with his personal experience as a diver and researcher on many of the wrecks he describes. He vividly recreates the scenes and events that led to the sinking of each ship, as well as the challenges and discoveries of the archaeological investigations that followed. With the 12 chosen wrecks, Gibbins covers a wide range of time periods, regions, and themes. He shows how each wreck represents a pivotal moment or aspect of human history, such as trade, exploration, warfare, religion, art, and technology. He also explains how the wrecks reflect the diversity and complexity of the maritime world, from the Phoenicians and Vikings to the Chinese and Polynesians. Gibbins does not treat the shipwrecks as isolated incidents, but rather as windows into the larger historical forces and dynamics that influenced them. He connects the wrecks to the rise and fall of empires, the spread of ideas and beliefs, the development of science and industry, and the impact of environmental and climatic changes. He also examines how the wrecks affected the course of history and the fate of nations and peoples.

What struck me the most was the fact that shipwrecks are invaluable sources of information and insight that complement and challenge the conventional historical records. Shipwrecks preserve a wealth of material and cultural evidence that is often lost or distorted on land. For example, many of the sites had metal artifacts that were intended for recycling and are never found in ground digs. He also shows how the wrecks offer a unique perspective on the human condition, as they capture the hopes and fears, the triumphs and tragedies, and the joys and sorrows of the people who sailed them.

My only con lies with the editorial execution. While Gibbins shares his experiences and research, a tighter edit would have enhanced the overall coherence. At times, facts and definitions repeat unnecessarily, disrupting the flow. Additionally, the blend of adventure-style writing (akin to in-the-moment journal entries) with historical recounting occasionally feels disjointed. Some chapters felt longer and more detailed than others, and some transitions and connections between the wrecks and the historical contexts could have been smoother and clearer.

I enjoyed the book and learned a lot, even as someone who has studied and taught secondary history for 25 years. It has a unique angle and will be a good addition to the popular history genre. It is a captivating and informative read that will appeal to anyone who is interested in the history of the world and the sea.

This was an ARC review for NetGalley.

For full disclosure, I rarely read nonfiction books for pleasure. However, when I saw what this book was about, I knew it would be different than other things I would normally read nonfiction of. To begin with, the author is a legitimate fiction author, but also an archaeologist, and dove to these wrecks, and had firsthand knowledge of everything in here. That's a great selling point to me. The book read so quickly, and was so interesting and informative because it spanned such a long period of time and encompassed a ton of human history. I would definitely recommend this book if you have any interest in archaeology or history, or just want to have more information regarding a ton of these time periods. I learned SO much in the short amount of time that it took me to finish this book, and I will definitely be getting this for all the history buffs in my life!

This ebook was provided in exchange for an honest review.

A well-researched book on shipwrecks. The parts talking to the shipwrecks were fascinating, especially those that aren’t as well known. History and maritime fans will enjoy this book.

ARC was provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review. Expected Pub Date: 2 April 2024
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