Atlantic History: Concept and Contours by Bernard Bailyn

Atlantic History: Concept and Contours Reviews

• 
  Nathan Albright

  In reading a book like this, I am struck by the way in which Bernard Bailyn is not only an immensely skilled historian of Atlantic History [1], but he is also a thoughtful and skilled writer about Atlantic History as a field of study, in which he modestly does not focus on his own considerable contributions to the field but rather on the broad scope of research areas within the field as well as its origins at a particular time in history where the connections between the United States (and Latin America and Africa) and the European world became both highly important and also somewhat politicized.  The fact that Atlantic History came to prominence in the aftermath of World War II when the United States was being urged to continue its involvement with Europe in the aftermath of Hitler's defeat and in a period of growing independence within Africa suggests that while Atlantic History involves a lot of people who are not necessarily politically motivated, that the political context of the times has a lot to do with what historical questions are asked and researched.
  
  This book is a short one at just over 100 pages and is divided into two sections.  The first section of the book deals with the idea of Atlantic History, and in this section the author talks about the history of Atlantic History as a field of study.  The author examines the influence of Braudel and demonstrates that Atlantic Historians have tended to aggregate regions through connections rather than disaggregate them as Braudel did.  Bailyn comments that Atlantic History is far more than imperial history, but that it connects matters of social and economic and intellectual history together, demonstrating the way that linkages penetrated deep into the areas connected through trade and population movements, sometimes in deeply unexpected ways, like Basque local gentry benefiting from imperial service to demonstrate their distinctive culture.  The second part of the book looks at the contours of Atlantic History.  It is here where Bailyn shows his mastery of the relevant historiography, providing a great deal of examples that show how paying attention to Atlantic History gives one insights that one would not have if one was looking at isolated regions alone, such as the advanced nature of the spread of intellectual ideas (some good, some bad) through imperial channels in both English North America (which got less Rousseau, which is for the best) as well as Latin America.
  
  In reading this book, one is aware that Bailyn himself clearly has some larger political concerns even if his history does not appear to be determined by them.  His expertise in New England history notwithstanding, he also shows himself to be deeply interested in the savagery of the marchlands of the 17th century European settler colonies on the littoral of North America and the ways that any analogies or reminders of home were treasured by all parties involved in that brutal and barbarous environment.  Likewise, the author is clearly someone who is opposed to the frequent American tendency to be involved in isolationist thinking and behavior.  The author clearly supports an interventionist approach between North America and Europe and also appears to have a high degree of interest in having North America continue to receive continental thinking, something I am far more dubious about myself than the author appears to be.  Thankfully, Bailyn is a sufficiently witty writer and a sufficiently light touch with his material that his evident desires for increased integration between Europe and North America, to say nothing of Latin America and Africa, are not argued in a way that is offensive to a reader with a different and less pro-European worldview.
  
  [1] See, for example:
  
  
  https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
  
  
  https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
  
  
  https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
  
  
  https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
  
  
  https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
  
  
  https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
  
  
  https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
  
  
  https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
  
  
  https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
  
  
  https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
  
  
  https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
• 
  Emily Kamm

  It was a fine introduction to the historiography of the field, brief and easy to read. Bailyn hardly paid more than lip service to the role of Africans and Indigenous Americans in the evolution of the interconnected Atlantic world system, but that's also not surprising. It was a perfectly good overview of the kind of Atlantic scholarship I want to avoid.
• 
  Gregory Pedersen

  This book had some very interesting historical concepts, as it outlines a lot of the key elements for the Atlantic history perspective. By no means is this book popular history, and for such a short book, the information is dense and very scholarly in nature.
• 
  AFMasten

  I think that this is a masterfully written book. Readable, yet so packed with information. The first part tells us how the field of Atlantic history evolved. Where it came from and what it is not. It is not the sum of a bunch of national histories, for example. It evolves from research, from demographic history, social history, political history, and the history of thought. The second part tells us of what it consists. It is a history of a world that was multitudinous, embracing the people, and circumstances of four continents, countless regional economies, languages, and social structures. The variations are enormous, yet there is a history of another order – a broader, more general and inclusive history, Atlantic in its essence, common to all the manifest events and to all the variant circumstances in Europe, Africa, and America. Those three elements cover the three centuries 1) violent instability, 2) dynamic economic networks, and 3) Enlightenment Ideals.
  In this contested "marchland," life was literally barbarous because all were intent on destroying the civility - European, Native American, African - that had once existed. Commercial webs – social, cultural, and demographic (of family, illegal trade, slavery, and religion) – developed as the Atlantic world matured. Ideas circulated too, arresting scientific, Enlightenment, constitutional thought from all over the Atlantic world. Successful creole leaders (American born of European ancestry) gain a sense of independence and usher in (at different times and in differing circumstances) the final phase of early modern Atlantic life: the rights of man, the freedom to work, think, speak, and write...a government where innocence, humanity, and peace will reign and where equality and freedom will triumph under the rule of law. These ideals circulated, survived, and, however unrealized, persisted, and continue to unify the cultures of the Atlantic World.
• 
  Emmanuel-francis

  Incredible. This is a collection of earlier essays by Professor Bailyn, as such, I was both aware and had an earlier sympathy for the arguments made within. Yet, to see them brought together was nothing short of incredible. I guarantee that you will not see the world the same way again.
  
  The arguments for a transnational view of the history of the Atlantic region strike me as common-sense. As the professor acknowledges, a work which properly synthesises the region's history is yet to be written. Yet what exists at present, certainly makes the case for acceptance of the Atlantic view being basic to historical understanding.
• 
  Lonerr

  An interesting history book that covers many aspects concerning the multitude of regions across the Atlantic ocean.
• 
  Aura

  Terrible book! It practically says that the author himself was the main historiographical starter of the field of Atlantic History, dismissing all previous works and situating origins of the field outside History itself. It brings forward an Eurocentric perspective on Atlantic History, stating that the interactions among regions began in an effort to expand "European cultures". It glorifies British empire while trashing the Spanish and dismissing the accomplishments of Dutch and Portuguese. Moreover, he dismisses the actual impact of Africa, only briefly mentioning the impact slaves had on the Americas. Overall a horrid, reductionist, synthesis which shows historical conservatism and a lack of knowledge on recent scholarship on Latin America, Africa and transnationalism.
• 
  Alexander Kennedy

  This book is comprised of two sections. The first sections traces the developments in the history profession and the world at large that led to the concept of Atlantic history. The second part of the book outlines what Atlantic history is. This book is purely an introductory reading for those unfamiliar with the concept of Atlantic history. Its concise and can easily be read in a few hours. Atlantic history is a growing field and this book is ten years old, but it is still a valuable introductory text.
• 
  Kristi

  This short historiography examines disciplinary interest in the Atlantic world emerged within academic scholarship. Bailey finds that scholarship tends to be fragmentary and aggregate, focusing on a particular aspect of the Atlantic Worlds interrelations, usually national, and he concludes that a true history of shared aspects has yet to be written.
• 
  Ryan

  A good synopsis of the origin of "Atlantic History" as a historical field of study, and a quick run-through of some of the most salient new research to emerge in this realm. At 111 pages, it's a breeze.
• 
  Katie Wilson

  Very concise introduction to the field of Atlantic History
• 
  Sebastian Fuentes

  A great read for understanding how Atlantic History as a field of study came about and how the application of Atlantic history as an analytical tool may be applied.
• 
  Mike Emett

  Required reading for the "Atlantic World" and "Colonial American History" graduate seminars.