A concise guide to the captivating history of the Atlantic ocean

Over the centuries the Atlantic has become one of the most important oceans for transport and trade in the world and has borne witness to major historic events. Looking back at those who have journeyed across it over time, renowned historian Jeremy Black unearths the stories, both of triumph and of tragedy, that led to the Atlantic becoming the ocean for the world.

Beginning with those adventurers who dared an attempt to cross the ocean before Columbus, Black analyses the pivotal relation the Atlantic has to our world history. From the beginning of the slave trade to the fight for power between empires; from the evolution of technology in steamships to telegraph cables; from the Vikings to the Falklands War - Black details the cornerstones of the Atlantic's history.

Black also examines the Atlantic as we know it today, and how the contemporary world's issues of climate change and ocean pollution are constant threats to this vast and irreplaceable ocean.

As much a traveller's companion as it is a must-read for history lovers, A Brief History of the Atlantic is a mesmerising page-turner that invites you to take your own journey across these shores as you unlock the tales of its past and future in history, fiction and in the imagination.