Global Lives
Britain and the World, 1550–1800

Fascinating account of Britain's rise as a global imperial power told through the lives of over forty individuals worldwide.

Miles Ogborn (Author)

9780521607186, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 October 2008

364 pages, 40 b/w illus. 26 maps 7 tables
24.7 x 17.4 x 2.1 cm, 0.72 kg

'Miles Ogburn wrote Global Lives to highlight human agency in the development of the British Empire, and 'to put the life back into global history' … He succeeds on both counts … constructs a rich, complex and multifaceted story of an empire's expansion by fits and starts. … Well-written, thoughtful and sympathetic, Global Lives deserves broad appeal for undergraduates, as well as the general public.' The Geographical Journal

This is a fascinating and unique account of Britain's rise as a global imperial power told through the lives of over forty individuals from a huge range of backgrounds. Miles Ogborn relates and connects the stories of monarchs and merchants, planters and pirates, slaves and sailors, captives and captains, reactionaries and revolutionaries, artists and abolitionists from all corners of the globe. These dramatic stories give new life to the exploration of the history and geography of changing global relationships, including settlement in North America, the East India Company's trade and empire, transatlantic trade, the slave trade, the rise and fall of piracy, and scientific voyaging in the Pacific. Through these many biographies, including those of Anne Bonny, Captain Cook, Queen Elizabeth I, Pocahontas, and Walter Ralegh, early modern globalisation is presented as something through which different people lived in dramatically contrasting ways, but in which everyone played a part.

1. Global lives
2. The Elizabethan world
3. Savage tales: settlement in North America
4. East meets west: the English East India Company in India
5. Into the Atlantic: the triangular trade?
6. Maritime labour: sailors and the seafaring world
7. Maritime violence: buccaneers, privateers and pirates
8. Human cargo: the Atlantic slave trade
9. Sugar islands: plantation slavery in the Caribbean
10. In black and white: fighting against the slave trade
11. Navigation and discovery: voyagers of the Pacific
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Historical geography [HBTP], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1], General & world history [HBG]