This book should appeal to all aficionados of the romance of the sea as well as to specialists in Spanish and Latin American colonial history.--Benjamin Keen, author of A History of Latin America

Harbron attempts to disprove many beliefs about the ineptness of the commanders and the poor quality of equipment attributed to the Spanish at Trafalgar. While the author describes the history of Spanish ship building and design, the case that would prove the ships were well led is not made.

The Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 underlined the importance of the sea as the supply route to both General Franco's insurgents and the Spanish Republic. There were attempted blockades by Franco as well as attacks by his Italian and German allies against legitimate neutral, largely British, merchant shipping bound for Spanish Republican ports and challenges to the Royal Navy, which was obliged to maintain a heavy presence in the area. The conflict provoked splits in British public opinion. Events at sea both created and reflected the international tensions of the latter 1930s, when the policy of appeasement of Germany and Italy dissuaded Britain from taking action against those countries’ activities in Spain, except to participate in a largely ineffective naval patrol to try to prevent the supply of war material to both sides. The book is based on original documentary sources in both Britain and Spain and is intended for the general reader as well as students and academics interested in the history of the 1930s, in naval matters and in the Spanish Civil War.

In a work of sweeping breadth and beauty, Geoff Winningham has created a profusely illustrated, contemplative travel journal that showcases his talent as both a photographer and a writer and reveals his affection and respect for the two countries he calls home. In 2003, photographer Geoff Winningham saw for the first time both the southern coast of Veracruz, with its volcanoes, rain forests, and steep mountains, and the Texas coast near High Island, where the land seems to stretch endlessly, covered by a sea of salt grass. He decided that these two visually striking areas could be the beginning and end points of a photographic study that would also engage the two cultures in which he had lived for twenty years, the U.S. and Mexico. Now, seven years and more than a hundred trips later, Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea: The Gulf Coast of Texas and Mexico is the result. In this beautifully illustrated and engagingly written book, Winningham also considers the role that the Gulf of Mexico played in the discovery and exploration of the New World. Winningham's journey begins east of High Island, in Port Arthur, where the images suggest a cautionary tale relating to the oil industry and the land. It ends twelve hundred miles down the coast at the end of an old, stone road in tropical terrain of almost indescribable beauty, overlooking the sea. In between, more than two hundred photographs include natural landscapes (ranging from unspoiled to completely despoiled), roadside architecture and signage, and images of people Winningham met. As he attempts to come to terms with the disturbing changes he witnessed to the coastal environment, the book also contains elements of a poignant, personal lament for what is being lost. Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea: The Gulf Coast of Texas and Mexico will delight and enchant readers with its deeply felt personal narrative and the power and beauty of its images.

Navigating the Spanish Lake examines Spain’s long presence in the Pacific Ocean (1521–1898) in the context of its global empire. Building on a growing body of literature on the Atlantic world and indigenous peoples in the Pacific, this pioneering book investigates the historiographical “Spanish Lake” as an artifact that unites the Pacific Rim (the Americas and Asia) and Basin (Oceania) with the Iberian Atlantic. Incorporating an impressive array of unpublished archival materials on Spain’s two most important island possessions (Guam and the Philippines) and foreign policy in the South Sea, the book brings the Pacific into the prevailing Atlanticentric scholarship, challenging many standard interpretations. By examining Castile’s cultural heritage in the Pacific through the lens of archipelagic Hispanization, the authors bring a new comparative methodology to an important field of research. The book opens with a macrohistorical perspective of the conceptual and literal Spanish Lake. The chapters that follow explore both the Iberian vision of the Pacific and indigenous counternarratives; chart the history of a Chinese mestizo regiment that emerged after Britain’s occupation of Manila in 1762-1764; and examine how Chamorros responded to waves of newcomers making their way to Guam from Europe, the Americas, and Asia. An epilogue analyzes the decline of Spanish influence against a backdrop of European and American imperial ambitions and reflects on the legacies of archipelagic Hispanization into the twenty-first century. Specialists and students of Pacific studies, world history, the Spanish colonial era, maritime history, early modern Europe, and Asian studies will welcome Navigating the Spanish Lake as a persuasive reorientation of the Pacific in both Iberian and world history.

What’s the difference between a seal and a sea lion? These “second cousins” of the sea look similar, but there are many ways to tell these creatures apart. From ear shape to the noises they make to communicate, seals and sea lions are amazing creatures with both shared features and many truly unique attributes. They both share an ocean habitat, but when readers take a closer look, it’s easy to discover how they each fight off predators, mate, and raise their young in different ways. Captivating full-color photographs help to bring these marvelous mammals to vivid life.