We are a land animal. But millions of us have taken to the sea to live, fight, travel, eat, escape and seek fame and fortune. I am obsessed with the sea. On how humans have built ever more efficient and capable ships to exploit its riches and opportunities. This is an conversation I’ve been longing to have. David Abulafia has written massive, beautiful, scholarly books about the oceans and his most recent, The Boundless Sea, is a masterpiece. He and I chatted about why and how humans have taken to the sea in ships and why what happens on the water affects politics, economics and societies on the land.
Up Next in History Hits
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A Strange Bit of History
We were delighted to have comedy royalty on the podcast. Omid Djalili talked to me about one of his earliest stage creations, first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1993. Over the next four years it was performed 109 times in 10 different countries. The backdrop of this epic storytel...
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Bombing Campaigns of the Second World...
75 years ago, in the spring of 1945, the aerial assault on Germany was reaching a crescendo as city after city was devastated by British and American bomber fleets. James Holland, leading World War Two historian and bestselling author, joins Dan Snow on the podcast to talk about why and how the b...
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Britain in the 1980s
Who Dares Wins'. Dominic Sandbrook's fifth book in his series on Britain since the Second World War is out now. The historian and columnist comes on the podcast to talk through the early 1980s in all their gaudy glory and why this period marks a decisive turning point in Britain's recent history.
