This is a very in depth look at the history of the Atlantic before Columbus. It is packed with detail which for me made it quite a slow read. However it concerns a subject I am interested in, and it is something that I don't think has been written about before and in such depth. It is basically a collection of all the available information, tied together by one of our best historical writers. I am amazed that I have spent my life believing that the exploration of the Atlantic started with the Spanish in the 1400's. The fact that a 500 page book can be written about exploration before Columbus shows how lacking our knowledge has been up until this date.

Opaque history of the Atlantic and its peoples

From an experienced historian and writer, this failed to engage in what should be a fascinating account of the Atlantic and its central role in Western civilisation. Assertions and summations are made too easily, without giving any insight into the journeys to discovery of the facts and historic texts mentioned and scarcely attributed. Whose scholarship is the text based on? Where are the original quotes or findings pulled from? Are suppositions part of the historic research world or wholly created by the author? The book appears to be a whole cloth but is instead riddled with more questions than it answers.

I think this is a great beginner book for this topic but otherwise I think it's quite surface live. I do enjoy the way Haywood writes history.

La saggistica di solito non è il mio genere ma in questo caso l'argomento mi è risultato interessante. Ho apprezzato che vengano trattati temi particolari (come all' inizio i mangiatori di ostriche). Tuttavia in molti punti l'ho trovato troppo dettagliato.