A Cultural History of the Atlantic World, 1250–1820

A Cultural History of the Atlantic World, 1250–1820 explores the idea that strong links exist in the histories of Africa, Europe and North and South America. John K. Thornton provides a comprehensive overview of the history of the Atlantic Basin before 1830 by describing political, social and cultural interactions between the continents' inhabitants. He traces the backgrounds of the populations on these three continental landmasses brought into contact by European navigation. Thornton then examines the political and social implications of the encounters, tracing the origins of a variety of Atlantic societies and showing how new ways of eating, drinking, speaking and worshipping developed in the newly created Atlantic World. This book uses close readings of original sources to produce new interpretations of its subject.

Part I. The Atlantic Background: 1. The foundation of the Atlantic world, 1250–1600; Part II. Three Atlantic Worlds: 2. The European background; 3. The African background; 4. The American world, 1450–1700; Part III. The Nature of Encounter and its Aftermath: 5. Conquest; 6. Colonization; 7. Contact; Part IV. Culture Transition and Change: 8. Transfer and retention in language; 9. Aesthetic change; 10. Religious stability and change; 11. The revolutionary moment in the Atlantic.

A Cultural History of the Atlantic World, 1250-1820 explores the strong links between the histories of Africa, Europe, and North and South America. John K. Thornton provides a comprehensive overview of the history of the Atlantic Basin before 1830 by describing the political, social and cultural interactions between the continents' inhabitants.

John K. Thornton is Professor of History and African American Studies at Boston University. He is the author of Warfare in Atlantic Africa, 1500–1800 (1999) and Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800 (Cambridge, 1992, 1998) and the co-author of Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585–1660 (Cambridge, 2007) with Linda M. Heywood.