Review by N. A. M. Rodger - The Atlanticby Geoffrey Scammell Paul Butel Iain Hamilton Grant (2000)

Review Author(s): N. A. M. Rodger Review by: N. A. M. Rodger Source: The English Historical Review, Vol. 115, No. 461 (Apr., 2000), pp. 451-452 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/579125 Accessed: 13-07-2016 17:15 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The English Historical Review This content downloaded from 142.3.100.128 on Wed, 13 Jul 2016 17:15:45 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

2000 SHORTER NOTICES 45I pp. xiv+225. ?45; pb. ?13.95). He focuses not on recent experience of decline, absolute or relative, nor on that in the eighteenth century, for example of Poland and the United Provinces, but rather on the early-modern problems of the Mediterranean. These are approached first through a discussion of the theories of Braudd and Wallerstein, in which he draws particular attention to the methodological limitations of Braudd, and there is also brief reference to the work of Jonathan Israel and Michael Mann. Thomson then considers developments in the Mediterranean, offering a spatial interpretation of European history in which opportunities and problems shifted attention to the Atlantic. Alongside the theory, there is examination of the situation in Byzantium, Italy and Iberia. Thomson sees economic development as for long primarily 'interstitial' and he explains the interaction of politics and economics in the creation of that characteristic. Thus the search for more favourable conditions from the point of view of factor supply was affected by differential protection costs, and by what Thomson sees as political disruptions such as Islamic expansion. His thesis is a bold one and will not command universal assent, but the theory is certainly stimulating and Thomson's contribution to discussion over decline is much to be welcomed. University of Exeter JEREMY BLACK The drawbacks of dividing history into national compartments are obvious to all, and the traditional approach makes particularly little sense in maritime history, for the seas join nations far more than they divide. Yet it remains rare to write the history of seas. All the more reason, therefore, to welcome the new series 'Seas in History', ed. Geoffrey Scammell, of which the first is TheAtlantic, by Paul Butel, tr. lain Hamilton Grant (London: Routledge, I999; pp. xv+330. ?40). After preliminary descriptions of the Viking voyages in the North, and of the mainly Italian exploration of the 'Mediterranean Atlantic' (the Canaries, Madeira and the Azores) in the late Middle Ages, the history gets into its stride with the transatlantic routes which were established and multiplied in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Primarily an economic historian, Professor Butel puts trade (both in goods and people) at the centre of his narrative. He is not unaware of war on and across the ocean, of cultural exchanges, and of the sea itself as a cultural influence, but these themes do not figure largely. There is certainly more to be written on the subject, but this is an admirable introduction to the economic history of the Atlantic and, in effect, of the modern world whose dominant countries lie about its shores and trade across its waters. Unfortunately the book suffered a catastrophe when it left the author's hands and fell into those of a translator who, on the evidence of his work, cannot be a native speaker of either language. Clumsily literal at best, quite unintelligible at worst, the translation makes the book all but unusable. Prepositions have been chosen apparently at random. Whole arguments are wrecked by elementary blunders: 'expeditions' instead of 'shipments' (expeditions); 'naval armaments' (where the reference is to merchant shipowning); a discussion of the grain trade where 'grains' is rendered as 'seeds' throughout; 'flour from fish' for fishmeal; 'petrol' for oil; 'courier traffic' for mail contracts. English quotations have been translated into French and back, losing much or all of their sense in the process. Though an expert reader, familiar with both EHR Apr. oo This content downloaded from 142.3.100.128 on Wed, 13 Jul 2016 17:15:45 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

452 SHORTER NOTICES April languages, can usually guess the original sense, the text is scattered with bizarre and unfathomable references ('bogs' in mid-Atlantic, U-Boats based in Greenland). Some place names are in French, some in English, some in local languages, and some in hybrid forms invented by the translator ('Gulf of Gascony' for Bay of Biscay; 'the Great Reef ' for the Grand Banks). Cartagena in the Mediterranean is confused with Cartagena in the Caribbean; the city of Utrecht with the treaty of Utrecht; and Faro has migrated to the Faeroe Islands. Imaginary places names 'Iles' and 'La Vieille' have been created out of references to islands, and a contrast drawn between New England and Old. Weights and measures are a farrago of different languages and units, some of them clearly garbled. All in all, a miserable fate for an eminent author and an important book. University of Exeter N. A. M. RODGER Scottish History has only a few narrative family histories extant before 1700. One important survival is David Hume of Godscroft's The History of the House of Douglas, now edited by David Reid in two volumes, (Edinburgh: Scottish Text Soc., I996; 2 vols., pp. IXXVi+I-294, 295-650. ?30 each). The original manuscript is in the National Library of Scotland and was partly published around I633. However, a fully annotated edition of this history of the 'black' Douglases has not been previously published. This will be of benefit to scholars of medieval Scotland, as the c. I633 text does contain many inaccuracies and eccentricities. Godscroft was a younger son of Sir David Hume of Wedderburn who deconstructs the myth of the Anglo-Scottish Borders as known only for its endemic violence. As a Border laird's son he became one of the best-known scholars of his age in Scotland and abroad. There was a kinship between the houses ofWedderburn and Angus as Godscroft's grandmother was a sister of the sixth earl of Angus and they held land from them. It was the tenth earl of Angus who commissioned his kinsman to write a history of the Douglases in the 1590s. The Douglases were never far from the centre of Scottish politics and intrigue. Their questionable loyalty to the ruling Stewart dynasty was skirted around by Godscroft in deference to his patron. Godscroft also reflected the influence of George Buchanan by portraying the Douglases in a humanist didactic, more in English than Scots or Latin. The history was designed to be about the importance and heroism of this aristocratic family, which it mostly is with the exception of religion. Godscroft parted company from his patron in matters of belief and church government. The tenth earl was Catholic, while Godscroft was a Melvillean Presbyterian. Godscroft's forthright belief won him no favour with James VI & I and Charles I, nor with the Episcopalian eleventh earl of Angus. In i644 the earl tried to prevent publication of a fuller version edited by Anna Hume, Godscroft's daughter. He then revised the history by removing any of the influences of Buchanan and Melville. His loyalty had earned him a marquisate while Anna Hume received derision. This version of The History of the Douglases is from the manuscript Godscroft wished to see published when he was lying on his deathbed. Good, grim and black Douglases from Dark Age Sholto to the ninth earl are here, with helpful notes and a glossary. Sadly the red Douglases are missing, as they did not appear until the I644 edition. This is unfortunate as the religious debates between Godscroft and his patron would EHRApr. oo This content downloaded from 142.3.100.128 on Wed, 13 Jul 2016 17:15:45 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms