In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Europe between the Oceans, 9000 BC–AD 1000
  • Peter Burke (bio)
Barry Cunliffe, Europe between the Oceans, 9000 BC – AD 1000 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), 518 pp.

History and archaeology were once defined against one another, as the curious concept of “prehistory” reminds us. In many universities the two departments are distant, and encounters few; yet there are encouraging signs of rapprochement. Barry Cunliffe, a leader in his field, reaches out to history in his latest book, a study of Europe that acknowledges the inspiration of Fernand Braudel’s “masterpiece” on the Mediterranean and notes the “resonance” between the practice of archaeology and Braudel’s sense of the long term and the constraints of the natural environment. Europe between the Oceans is at once an ambitious book, in its concern with Europe (defined as “the most westerly protuberance of the landmass of Asia”) as a whole over 10,000 years, and a modest book, in its claim to present no more than a personal view. Cunliffe shares Braudel’s interest in structures and systems, including what Cunliffe terms the “neolithic package”—in other words, “ground stone tools, pottery and rectangular timber buildings, together with domesticated sheep, goats, cattle and pigs, and cultivated cereals.” On the other hand, Europe between the Oceans places less emphasis than Braudel on constraints and risks, and more emphasis on human achievements (showing, for instance, how far back in time skills such as boat building and navigation can be found). The story his book tells is essentially one of increasing communication and interaction [End Page 504] between different parts of Europe. In this respect, the historian of whom Cunliffe most reminds me is not Braudel but William McNeill, whose Rise of the West, concentrating on the last 4,000 years, told a similar story on a global scale.

Peter Burke

Peter Burke is professor of cultural history at Cambridge University and a fellow of Emmanuel College. He is the author of some dozen books, including What Is Cultural History?; A Social History of Knowledge; Eyewitnessing; History; and Social Theory; The French Historical Revolution; The Fabrication of Louis XIV; Languages and Communities in Early Modern Europe; The Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Italy; and The Art of Conversation.

...

pdf

Share