A path in the mighty waters
Subtitle: shipboard life and Atlantic crossings to the New World
By: Stephen R. Berry
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9780300204230
Subjects: Merchant ships; Social aspects; Seafaring life; Transatlantic voyages; HISTORY / Social History; Passenger accommodation; Emigration and immigration; HISTORY / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775); HISTORY / Modern / 18th Century; History
Description: "This book tells the story of how people experienced the eighteenth-century crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, exploring the transformative journey undertaken by the thousands of Europeans who journeyed in search of a better life. Stephen Berry shows how the ships, on which passengers were contained in close quarters for months at a time, operated as compressed "frontiers," where diverse groups encountered one another and established new patterns of social organization.  As he argues that experiences aboard ship served as a profound conversion experience for travelers, both spiritually and culturally, Berry reframes the history of Atlantic migrations, giving the ocean and the ship a more prominent role in Atlantic history. The ocean was more than a backdrop for human events: it actively shaped historical experiences by furnishing a dissociative break from normal patterns of life and a formative stage in travelers' processes of collective identification"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.