Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • The Boundless Sea

  • A Human History of the Oceans
  • By: David Abulafia
  • Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
  • Length: 41 hrs and 2 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (161 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Boundless Sea

By: David Abulafia
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the award-winning author of The Great Sea, a magnificent new global history of the oceans and of humankind's relationship with the sea.

For most of human history, the seas and oceans have been the main means of long-distance trade and communication between peoples - for the spread of ideas and religion as well as commerce. This book traces the history of human movement and interaction around and across the world's greatest bodies of water, charting our relationship with the oceans from the time of the first voyagers. David Abulafia begins with the earliest of seafaring societies - the Polynesians of the Pacific, the possessors of intuitive navigational skills long before the invention of the compass, who by the first century were trading between their far-flung islands.

By the seventh century, trading routes stretched from the coasts of Arabia and Africa to southern China and Japan, bringing together the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific and linking half the world through the international spice trade. In the Atlantic, centuries before the little kingdom of Portugal carved out its powerful, seaborne empire, many peoples sought new lands across the sea - the Bretons, the Frisians and, most notably, the Vikings, now known to be the first Europeans to reach North America. As Portuguese supremacy dwindled in the late 16th century, the Spanish, the Dutch and then the British each successively ruled the waves.

Following merchants, explorers, pirates, cartographers and travellers in their quests for spices, gold, ivory, slaves, lands for settlement and knowledge of what lay beyond, Abulafia has created an extraordinary narrative of humanity and the oceans.

From the earliest forays of peoples in hand-hewn canoes through uncharted waters to the routes now taken daily by supertankers in their thousands, The Boundless Sea shows how maritime networks came to form a continuum of interaction and interconnection across the globe: 90 per cent of global trade is still conducted by sea. This is history of the grandest scale and scope, and from a bracingly different perspective - not, as in most global histories, from the land but from the boundless seas.

©2019 David Abulafia (P)2019 Penguin Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Thirty Years War cover art
Byzantium cover art
The Dissolution of the Monasteries cover art
Devil-Land cover art
Empire of Things cover art
The Republic of Venice and Republic of Genoa: The History of the Italian Rivals and Their Mediterranean Empires cover art
Age of Discovery cover art
India cover art
Adventurers cover art
The Ocean of Churn cover art
1494 cover art
The Dutch Moment cover art
Merchant Kings cover art
The Forgotten Slave Trade cover art
Arabs cover art
Enemy of All Mankind cover art

What listeners say about The Boundless Sea

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    124
  • 4 Stars
    24
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    116
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    105
  • 4 Stars
    21
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant!

A fantastic and interesting history of the Oceans.
superbly written and excellently narrated!
Top notch!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding Book.

The sheer amount of fascinating information in this book is an achievement. I listened to it twice in a row it was so good. Highly recommended.
Jonathan Keeble has a lovely voice—smooth as silk. His pronunciation of foreign words (such as Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, etc...), though, is woeful. I understand this book has a lot of foreign words, but just a little bit of preparation on how to pronounce often repeated, foreign words, would have been appreciated.
Otherwise, I cannot recommend this book enough.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

excellent

I really enjoyed this.

The narrator is also very good

Would recommend if you like world history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

the history

Good read about the sea and the emerging of China in the end, I like reading about history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This has

to be one of the best histories I've read, the story of human sea travel is vast and still goes on, I'll listen to this again and again. Brilliant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

very interesting & well read

I would recommend this book to people interested in history, economics, and the sea. Good.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Superb

I found this a fascinating book from beginning to end. It has given much more breadth and depth to my understanding of history and where we stand today. Thank you to the author for undertaking such a mammoth task. Now I can listen to the world news with a more rounded approach!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A writer at the peak of his powers

A beautifully written (and read) magisterial account of human use and abuse of the oceans. From the extraordinary Polynesian journeys to the age of the container ship Abulafia tells how we have interacted with the watery world. Essential reading.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wot no maps?

Fantastic content, great narrator, but why is there no pdf to show maps that support the text? Map images would be a very worthwhile addition to support the audiobook.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful journey through human history

This audiobook surely makes me wish that I had the world map better memorised. Extremely interesting and well written. The interesting facts and the captivating, connecting story is enhanced by the excellent narration. What I really appreciate is a modern awareness of colonialism and its impact on world history and local peoples.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!