A path in the mighty waters : shipboard life and Atlantic crossings to the New World /

"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 contain...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Berry, Stephen Russell, 1970-
Corporate Author: ebrary, Inc
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: New Haven : Yale University Press, 2015.
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to the full text of this electronic book
Description
Summary:"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"--
Physical Description:1 online resource (xiv, 320 pages)
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:9780300210255
0300210256