The deeds and aspirations of individuals or groups of struggling refugees or seafaring merchants propel this story through its often tumultuous course. This is a people-driven narrative of social upheavals and the making and breaking of empires. Just as the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis motivated readers to ponder Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August and the American Revolution lent a special timeliness to Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the first volume of which was published in 1776, so with The Great Sea.Ībulafia’s book is much more than an account of the vast, faceless forces of history. The headlines that grab our attention today have many parallels in the Mediterranean past. World shaking events of this sort give Abulafia’s book a special resonance. Revolt in such volatile circumstances may only be a matter of time. Jobless rates among young people in these Mediterranean nations are especially high, with Spain in the unenviable lead position with 44.4% unemployment for workers under the age of 25 years. On the other side of this inland sea, a near economic melt-down has threatened the southern tier of the European Union – Greece, Spain and Italy, as well as nearby Portugal – with a landslide of debt and soaring unemployment. This year, the wave of political dissent known as the Arab Spring convulsed the North African nations bordering the Mediterranean. An important theme, solid research, magnificent writing and a perceptive insight into human nature figure prominently in the pages of his study of the body of water that the Romans called mare nostrum, “our sea.”Ībulafia’s The Great Sea is blessed with another attribute that historians can only pray for: the gift of perfect timing. CLR ĭavid Abulafia’s new book about the Mediterranean Sea, The Great Sea, has everything a major work of history requires. The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean by David Abulafia

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