This first general survey of European naval and maritime history for the period from A.D. 300 to 1500 focuses on Western Europe, including the Baltic, North Sea, and Atlantic traditions, and on the Mediterranean, particularly Byzantine and Moslem naval history. The authors survey a number of interconnected areas: the use of seapower in international and intercultural relations, commerce and trade routes, naval technology and design, military tactics, the physical features of seafaring, and the geography of the sea. They make accessible to the general reader very technical scholarship, and provide numerous maps and illustrations that explain the changes in ship design and construction. The overall result is a powerful historical synthesis whiich gives students, teachers, and general readers a "feel" for the seafaring life and the place of the sea within medieval civilization.

How were medieval navies organised, and how did powerful rulers use them? This fascinating account brings vividly to life the dangers and difficulties of medieval seafaring.

Warfare at Sea, 1500-1650 is the first truly international study of warfare at sea in this period. Commencing in the late fifteenth century with the introduction of gunpowder in naval warfare and the rapid transformation of maritime trade, Warfare at Sea focuses on the scope and limitations of war before the advent of the big battle fleets from the middle of the seventeenth century. The book also compares the social history of seamen and the early officer corps in several European countries and includes discussion on Spain, Portugal, France, Venice, the Ottoman Empire and the Baltic states.

"Faith and Sword explores the long and bloody history of the Muslim-Christian conflict, and examines the causes of present-day tensions between Islamic nations and the secular West. This book examines the Christian-Muslim conflict through all its stages and shows how our current situation has emerged. Ranging from Morocco to Indonesia, and from Russia to Somalia, it sheds light on the complex political and religious dynamics that form the background to one of the most important conflicts of our time."--BOOK JACKET.

Presents a wealth of original research findings on how medieval ports actually worked, providing new insights on shipping, trade, port society and culture, and systems of regional and international integration.

"[A] fine, arresting book with a clear and novel thesis and a firm grasp of geography. Good stuff, in short . . . strongly recommended." -William H. McNeill

This remarkable work is a comprehensive historiographical and bibliographical survey of the most important scholarly and printed materials about the naval and maritime history of England and Great Britain from the earliest times to 1815. More than 4,000 popular, standard and official histories, important articles in journals and periodicals, anthologies, conference, symposium and seminar papers, guides, documents and doctoral theses are covered so that the emphasis is the broadest possible. But the work is far, far more than a listing. The works are all evaluated, assessed and analysed and then integrated into an historical narrative that makes the book a hugely useful reference work for student, scholar, and enthusiast alike. It is divided into twenty-one chapters which cover resource centres, significant naval writers, pre-eminent and general histories, the chronological periods from Julius Caesar through the Vikings, Tudors and Stuarts to Nelson and Bligh, major naval personalities, warships, piracy, strategy and tactics, exploration, discovery and navigation, archaeology and even naval fiction. Quite simply, no-one with an interest and enthusiasm for naval history can afford to be without this book at their side.