Europe and the Maritime World
A Twentieth-Century History

This book explores the development of the global economy in the twentieth century through the lens of the European maritime infrastructure.

Michael B. Miller (Author)

9781107024557, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 August 2012

452 pages, 11 b/w illus. 4 maps 7 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.9 cm, 0.83 kg

'… will become a classic. This is a book that is a real pleasure to read, that is so full of information and debate that it will keep on giving.' Helen Doe, The Journal of Transport History

Europe and the Maritime World: A Twentieth-Century History offers a framework for understanding globalization over the past century. Through a detailed analysis of ports, shipping and trading companies whose networks spanned the world, Michael B. Miller shows how a European maritime infrastructure made modern production and consumer societies possible. He argues that the combination of overseas connections and close ties to home ports contributed to globalization. Miller also explains how the ability to manage merchant shipping's complex logistics was central to the outcome of both world wars. He chronicles transformations in hierarchies, culture, identities and port city space, all of which produced a new and different maritime world by the end of the century.

Part I. Networks: 1. Ports
2. Shipping
3. Trading companies and their commodities
4. Intermediaries
5. Culture
Part II. Exchanges: 6. World War I
7. The time of troubles
8. War and remaking, 1939–60s
9. Transformation.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Maritime history [HBTM], General & world history [HBG], History [HB]