Broad sweeping history like this, even when done well, is both very intriguing and enjoyable to read, and occasionally frustrating. As long as you know what you're reading, you can get around that.

To get the frustrating bit out of the way: the book focuses almost entirely on the European experience. It touches briefly on Africa, and even more briefly on the Americas, but largely through a European lens. Now, I am sure that this is partly a dearth of written records - but a significant portion of the book is about pre-history and/or relies on archaeology, so that doesn't hold as a reason. I would have less of a problem with this if the book itself made clear it was "the European Atlantic," but it doesn't.

So, on the understanding that this book is largely about the European experience of the Atlantic before Columbus sailed across it, this is a pretty good book! It's a survey, so it covers an enormous swathe of time and, within the European bounds, a broad range of cultures too - which does mean it doesn't have really nitty-gritty detail, but that aspect is entirely expected.

Having recently visited Skara Brae, on Orkney, I was delighted to discover a section on that site, and to learn more about what it reveals of how Neolithic folks used the ocean. Haywood covers what we can know about how humans have eaten from the ocean (isotopes in bones, how amazing), as well as - when the literary sources exist - how they thought about it, used it in myths and stories, and so on. And then of course there's sailing, for a variety of reasons and in a variety of vessels.

I left this book intrigued by the different ways people have used this ocean over time. I generally enjoyed Haywood's writing style, and think this is accessible to the general reader.

This was an incredibly interesting read about life around the shores of the Atlantic, and exploration of the ocean before Columbus made his voyage to the New World. I would definitely like to know more about the people who lived during this time period.

Reading this book took me a long time because every page is filled with something interesting worth remembering and I didn`t want to miss it. I have highlighted about half of the book. Oops...
The history of human connection with the open waters is fascinating. There are a lot of interesting facts that aren`t commonly known, such as the plague (Black Death) originated in northern Kyrgyzstan around 1338. Have you ever heard of a condition called "rabbit starvation"? Me neither, it's protein poisoning, it happens when one doesn't eat enough carbs. The first colonies that we know of belonged to Phenicians in the ancient world, so badmouthing medieval Europeans is not 100% justified, they weren't the first. The same goes for slavery, but modern Americans have their own view of the matter and won`t listen to the historians.
This book made me laugh, made me think, and gave me a "what?!" moment. Brilliant!

The book Ocean by John Haywood is a fascinating look into the oceans of the world, exploring their secrets, ecosystems, and significance to our planet. Haywood shows how sea life and its settings are connected in complex ways by using interesting stories and detailed drawings. He writes about many things, from ocean currents to the effects of climate change, and makes hard science ideas easy to understand. This book is great for people who are interested in marine biology or environmental science because it has both beautiful pictures and useful information.

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.