Creation Of The British Atlantic World

Thompson, Karin Wulf, Avihu Zakai. Was the British Atlantic shaped more by imperial rivalries or by the actions of subnational groups with a variety of economic, social, and religious agendas? The Creation of the British Atlantic World analyzes the interrelationship between these competing explanations for the development of the British Atlantic by examining migration patterns on both the macro and micro level. It also scrutinizes the roles played by trade, religion, ethnicity, and class in linking Atlantic borders and the increasingly complicated legal, intellectual and emotional relationship between the British sovereign and colonial charterholders. Contributors include Joyce E. Chaplin, John E. Crowley, David Barry Gaspar, April Lee Hatfield, James Horn, Ray A. Kea, Elizabeth Mancke, Philip D. Morgan, William M. Offutt, Robert Olwell, Carole Shammas, Wolfgang Splitter, Mark L. Thompson, Karin Wulf, Avihu Zakai. "This is a seminal collection that over the years will provide both inspiration and guidance to those striving to understand the 'how' and 'why' of imperialism and imperial historiography."—Itinerario: European Journal of Overseas History "The popularity of Atlantic history is proven by a stream of publications in recent years, but few have attained the quality of this excellent collection."—Journal of American History "The contributors and editors have done us a great service by bringing together in one volume some of the more creative and novel approaches to Atlantic history."—Journal of World History Elizabeth Mancke is a professor of history and the Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Studies at the University of New Brunswick. Carole Shammas is the John R. Hubbard Chair Emerita in History at the University of Southern California. While scholars of traditional imperial history see the formation of the larger British Atlantic world as a consequence of competing European powers' efforts at nation-building, Atlantic historians see the transatlantic empire shaped more by the motives of a wide variety of subnational groups. Elizabeth Mancke and Carole Shammas have compiled a volume that reflects these different viewpoints concerning the transatlantic experience during Britain's rise to world dominance between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the book's opening chapters, contributors consider the effect of transatlantic emigration, discussing European and African migration and slave trade; the enslavement of Native American peoples; and the ways individuals adapted their national and religious identities in a world of expanding cultural influences. The second section addresses the roles played by trade, religion, ethnicity, and class in linking the Atlantic borders, with essays examining how mariners circulated political and religious news along with trade goods; how British common law supplanted the diverse legal systems of the early colonies; and how Protestant leaders in the colonies challenged the theological assumptions of their European contemporaries. The chapters in the final section address the increasingly complicated legal relationships between the British sovereign and colonial charterholders; the simultaneous establishment of a British colonial government in East Florida and the Royal Gardens of Kew; the popularity of imperial landscape art in eighteenth-century Britain; and the British roots of Pennsylvania Quakers. The Creation of the British Atlantic World provides insight into the competing forces that forged the Atlantic world as well as the reciprocal relationships between the growing British Empire and the individuals, groups, and subnations within that empire.