Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
$39.99
USDBetween the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea focuses upon the seamen's experience in order to illuminate larger historical issues such as the rise of capitalism, the genesis of free wage labor, and the growth of an international working class. These epic themes were intimately bound up with the everyday hopes and fears of the common men who toiled upon the deep.
Reviews & endorsements
"...an excellent up-from-the-lower deck study of deepwater sailors in the eighteenth century...the best working-class history I've read in years." Robert Schaeffer, In These Times
"...No one interested in the history of the 18th century can afford to ignore this book." Christopher Hill
"...A fresh and powerful analysis of the 18th century maritime world." Gary Nash
"...the style is lucid, the tone is assured, the documentation professional and economical. And the book is brought to a triumphant conclusion with two superb chapters on the seaman as the 'Spirit of Rebellion' and as a pirate...What distinguishes Rediker's work is his unwavering and unsentimental focus on the seaman's labour and experience in his cramped wooden world." E.P. Thompson, The Guardian
"...a book that undoubtedly will have an enduring value. Every student of early eighteenth-century maritime affairs should read Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea." John D. Byrn, Jr., The Eighteenth Century
"...luminous study of a neglected segment of colonial society." Robert M. Calhoon, Historical Journal of Massachusetts
Product details
February 1989Paperback
9780521379830
340 pages
229 × 152 × 19 mm
0.5kg
17 b/w illus. 1 map 8 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1. The seaman as man of the world: a tour of the North Atlantic, c. 1740
- 2. The seaman as collective worker: the labor process at sea
- 3. The seaman as wage laborer: the search for ready money
- 4. The seaman as plain dealer: language and culture at sea
- 5. The seaman as the 'spirit of rebellion': authority, violence, and labor discipline
- 6. The seaman as pirate: plunder and social banditry at sea
- Conclusion: the seaman as worker of the world
- Appendices
- Index.
