The great ocean : Pacific worlds from Captain Cook to the gold rush

Resource Information

The work The great ocean : Pacific worlds from Captain Cook to the gold rush represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in DC Public Library System. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The great ocean : Pacific worlds from Captain Cook to the gold rush

Title remainder

Pacific worlds from Captain Cook to the gold rush

Statement of responsibility

David Igler

Creator

• Igler, David, 1964-

Author

• Igler, David, 1964-

Subject

• Culture diffusion
• Culture diffusion -- Pacific Area -- History -- 18th century
• Culture diffusion -- Pacific Area -- History -- 19th century
• Discoveries in geography
• East and West
• East and West
• History
• Indigenous peoples
• Indigenous peoples -- Pacific Area -- History -- 18th century
• 1700-1899
• Natural history
• Natural history -- Pacific Area -- History -- 18th century
• Natural history -- Pacific Area -- History -- 19th century
• Pacific Area
• Pacific Area -- Commerce | History -- 18th century
• Pacific Area -- Commerce | History -- 19th century
• Pacific Ocean
• Pacific Ocean -- Discovery and exploration
• Indigenous peoples -- Pacific Area -- History -- 19th century
• Commerce

Genre

• History

Language

eng

Summary

"The Pacific of the early eighteenth century was not a single ocean but a vast and varied waterscape, a place of baffling complexity, with 25,000 islands and seemingly endless continental shorelines. But with the voyages of Captain James Cook, global attention turned to the Pacific, and European and American dreams of scientific exploration, trade, and empire grew dramatically. By the time of the California gold rush, the Pacific's many shores were fully integrated into world markets-and world consciousness. The Great Ocean draws on hundreds of documented voyages--some painstakingly recorded by participants, some only known by archeological remains or indigenous memory--as a window into the commercial, cultural, and ecological upheavals following Cook's exploits, focusing in particular on the eastern Pacific in the decades between the 1770s and the 1840s. Beginning with the expansion of trade as seen via the travels of William Shaler, captain of the American Brig Lelia Byrd, historian David Igler uncovers a world where voyagers, traders, hunters, and native peoples met one another in episodes often marked by violence and tragedy. Igler describes how indigenous communities struggled against introduced diseases that cut through the heart of their communities; how the ordeal of Russian Timofei Tarakanov typified the common practice of taking hostages and prisoners; how Mary Brewster witnessed first-hand the bloody "great hunt" that decimated otters, seals, and whales; how Adelbert von Chamisso scoured the region, carefully compiling his notes on natural history; and how James Dwight Dana rivaled Charles Darwin in his pursuit of knowledge on a global scale."--Publisher's description

Cataloging source

YDX

Dewey number

909.09823081

Illustrations

• illustrations
• portraits

Index

index present

LC call number

DU20

LC item number

.I35 2017

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography