Eric Tagliacozzo: In Asian Waters: Oceanic Worlds from Yemen to Yokohama

Classic Atlantic-centred world maps tend to relegate the Southeast Asian region to the right side of the chart, splitting the Pacific Ocean in two and pushing the Indian Ocean to the periphery as well. Inevitably, even on the more equally scaled Gall-Peters projection, the Asian continent – spanning from the Bosporus to Japan, and, in its southern quarter, from the Horn of Africa across the water mass of the Indian Ocean up to the shores of the Malay peninsula and Indonesian archipelago – appears marginal. Such graphic renditions have failed to elucidate the centrality of Asia, with its seas and oceans, on the world scene both in modern and ancient times. Global historical literature is not dissimilar in this sense. As opposed to terrestrial histories of the continent, very few scholars have, in fact, ventured to foster a new understanding of the role of “Asian waters” in the history of Greater Asia. In this regard, Eric Tagliacozzo’s In Asian Waters is an impressive effort to fill the aforementioned gap in the literature. The book’s narration spans the prehistory, Middle Ages, premodernity and, in greater detail, modern era of Asia’s seas, occasionally venturing into more contemporary issues. This wideranging historical discussion is arranged in six parts and 14 chapters. Each part discusses a specific rubric: transregional maritime connections, state and non-state perspectives on the sea, religions, urban development, Asia’s maritime environments and technologies.