Sea History 165 - Winter 2018-2019

Page 53

building blocks of dynamic histories. Chapters that follow provide a dense but engaging and sophisticated summary of Lake Ontario regional history that addresses a wide range of important cultural, economic, and political developments that influenced the maritime cultural landscape. These chapters provide the historical foundations for deeply researched studies of “geographically grounded microhistories,” each describing the Lake Ontario maritime landscape from the vantage point of one location. From these historical and material foundations, Ford weaves together a regional-scale analysis of Lake Ontario maritime landscapes that raises the questions connected with ephemeral landscapes (important landscapes that once existed, but for which no material record survives, such as ice roads), differing cultural perceptions of danger, and the idea of a “pan-lake” identity that resulted from Lake Ontario’s isolated but internationally connected maritime location. The book ends with a concise but important chapter on the condition and associated cultural and ecological issues associated with Lake Ontario’s twenty-first-century maritime landscape. To summarize, The Shore is a Bridge is a unique and important contribution to the maritime historical and archaeological scholarship of the Great Lakes and North America. The cultural landscape methodologies showcased in the book are useful and a long step in right direction. Equally or more important than the specific methodologies described are the critical questions about the meaning of landscape and maritime identity that Ford raises throughout the volume. While it is first and foremost a book suited to professional scholars, the author’s exceptional writing clarity makes it accessible to the sophisticated general reader with a strong interest in local, Lake Ontario, or Great Lakes history. John Odin Jensen Pensacola, Florida Barons of the Sea—And Their Race to Build the World’s Fastest Clipper Ships by Steven Ujifusa (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2018, 427pp, index, illus, appen, notes, isbn 978-1-4767-4597-8; $29.99hc) The clipper ship era has been romanticized as the pinnacle of design for long-

Trading in War

London’s Maritime World in the Age of Cook and Nelson Margarette Lincoln

Captain Cook and the Pacific Art, Exploration and Empire John McAleer and Nigel Rigby

Published in association with the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

Seapower States

Maritime Culture, Continental Empires and the Conflict That Made the Modern World Andrew Lambert

In Nelson’s Wake

The Navy and the Napoleonic Wars James Davey Paperback

Fishing

How the Sea Fed Civilization Brian Fagan Paperback

The Saltwater Frontier

Indians and the Contest for the American Coast Andrew Lipman Paperback

The Sea is My Country

The Maritime World of the Makahs Joshua L. Reid

The First Circumnavigators

Unsung Heroes of the Age of Discovery Harry Kelsey

Yale university press www.YaleBooks.com

SEA HISTORY 165, WINTER 2018–19 51 Sea History.indd 1

9/11/18 9:19 AM


Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.