Tracks on the Ocean

A History of Trailblazing, Maps and Maritime Travel

Sara Caputo

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Profile
12 November 2024

History; General & world history; Historical maps & atlases; Cartography, map-making & projections

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'Ingenious. Caputo picks out a fascinating path and leads readers along it with the confidence of a practised pilot' - Felipe Fernndez-Armesto, author of 1492

'Accessible and entertaining, as well as deeply erudite and constantly mind-expanding' - Philip Ball, author of How Life Works

From their first appearance on Renaissance maps, linear tracks representing maritime voyages have shaped the way we see the world. But why do we depict journeys as lines, and what is their deeper meaning? Ferdinand Magellan's route to the Pacific embodied the promise of adventure and colonisation, while the scientific charts of the Royal Navy inspired others to plan conquests, navigate treacherous waters and establish settlements across the oceans.

In Tracks on the Ocean, prize-winning historian Sara Caputo charts a hidden history of the modern world through the tracks left on maps of the sea. Taking us from ancient Greek itineraries to 21st-century digital mapping, via the voyages of Drake and Cook, the decks of Napoleonic warships and the boiler rooms of ocean liners, Caputo reveals how marks on maps have changed the course of modernity.

By: Sara Caputo
Imprint: Profile
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: Main
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 158mm, Spine: 36mm
Weight: 560g
ISBN: 9781788168823
ISBN 10: 1788168828
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 12 November 2024
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Dr Sara Caputo is a Senior Research Fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge. A specialist in maritime and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history, she is the winner of numerous awards, including the Prince Consort and Thirlwall Prize. She has been a Visiting Fellow in Germany, California and at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

Reviews for Tracks on the Ocean: A History of Trailblazing, Maps and Maritime Travel

The cartographical track ... represented an evolving sense of humanity's position in the world: notions of destiny, permanence and possession, heroic craft and odds-defying relevance. It portrayed the individual standing in front of the wild environment, wrangling it and branding it, tattooing the image of the Earth with lines that say - I have been there -- Sara Caputo * Tracks on the Ocean *