mans , Germans , Scandinavians and French who came in their successive waves across the Channel. This twisty tongue which carries so much history in it, rather than some rational language like Esperanto, is today the nearest thing we have to a universal language of the family of man. Calder is a wise man who takes history whole, and conveys it to us full of life and meaning. He is a poet who deals with the meanings of events, as well as a scientist able to measure their dimensions and impact. He is one of that rare, valuable breed who function in what C. P . Snow called the two cultures. And he brings us from that voyaging a rich and most rewarding cargo . PS The North Sea: A Highway of Economic and Cultural Exchange , eds . Ame Bang-Andersen, Basil Greenhill & Egil Harald Grude (Norwegian University Press , Oslo; Oxford University Press , NYC, 278pp, illus, $45.00 hb). A body of water is generally perceived as a barrier. Once when a heavy storm blocked traffic accross the English Channel , British headlines proclaimed " Continent Isolated " . But water, though at times a formidable barrier, not only isolates; it can also promote exchanges . This book shows , among other things , how the North Sea furthered the flow of people , goods and ideas among the countries bordering on it. Experts from Britain, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands and Germany have contributed articles covering everything from the Ice Age to oi l rigs . Topics include the evolution of the sea, changes in its climate , ships, trade , migrations and cultural diffusion . The articles are all high standard. The first, dealing with the development of the sea, may need updating . As recently as 7 ,500 years ago , just before the start of recorded history, the southern part of the sea was dry, but' 'whether there were land areas in the northern North Sea where people could live is more doubtful . . . no finds indicating such habitation have been reported . . . . " Since publication of the book , British geologists have found a 12 ,000-year-old flint tool on the sea floor and concluded that a 20 ,000 square kilometer island did exist between the Shetland Islands and Norway. As the Ice Age glaciers melted, this island and the southern parts of the sea were submerged. Such recent findings in no way detract from the quality of the book or from its usefulness. The North Sea is a book written by special ists , but it is not necessarily written for specialists. Although few SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987
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