Author Archive | Isaac Land

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The Coastal History Blog 37: Sea Blindness, or Ocean Optimism? (Part 2 of 3): A Tale of Four Tweets

In my last post, I discussed why sea blindness is not the most useful way to characterize twenty-first century sensibilities.  Let’s face it, it just doesn’t make much sense at a time when beachgoers have to be warned, “Don’t take selfies with seals.”  Instead, I argued, we should think critically about sea visibility, which is […]

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The Coastal History Blog 36: Sea Blindness, or Ocean Optimism? (Part 1 of 3)

The average Briton is unaware that 95% of the goods they buy arrived on a ship.  When asked to name a “well-known British maritime personality,” most respondents said, “Captain Jack Sparrow.”  These results are set forth by the Maritime Foundation as evidence of sea blindness.[i] Duncan Redford is one of the few people so far […]

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Akrotiri’s “Dolphin”Taverna, not far from the ruins. Photo: Isaac Land

The Coastal History Blog 35: A Cosmopolitan Bronze Age Port?

In Mediterranean studies, does the cosmopolitan port town rank alongside “sun and sea… olives and myrtle… the commonplaces pervading the literature, all description and repetition”?[1] Articles with titles like “Cosmopolitanism Reconsidered” and “The Cosmopolitan Mediterranean: Myth and Reality” have raised doubts about the whole project.[2] It’s one thing to state that that two or more […]

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