Jack Bouchard is assistant professor of environmental history at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. He has published widely on the histories of fishing, islands, and foodways. He lives in Highland Park, NJ.

“Bouchard has simultaneously laid the groundwork for understanding the more ‘formal’ colonial objectives that would later follow. . . while also providing a productive glimpse into a consequential corner of the Atlantic.”—Zeb Baker-Smith, Aspects of History2026 George Perkins Marsh Prize finalist, sponsored by ASEHWinner of the John R. Lyman Book Award in North American maritime history, sponsored by the NASOH2026 Best Book in Canadian Environmental History Prize winner, sponsored by the Network in Canadian History and Environment“This engagingly written history of the Atlantic world in the sixteenth century is crammed with fascinating facts and anecdotes, and reveals a teeming world of fish, fishworkers, and sailing ships that made the waters and shores of Newfoundland and adjacent lands into a hive of activity and a hub of maritime connections.”—Allan Greer, author of Property and Dispossession: Natives, Empires and Land in Early Modern North America“By extending the history of cod fishing back into the sixteenth century, this important book helps us reenvision colonial history through the lens of Terra Nova, a malleable maritime space of colonial extraction without land‑based settlement.”—Jakobina K. Arch, author of Bringing Whales Ashore: Oceans and the Environment of Early Modern Japan“An essential read on the worlds made by people, fish, and ocean in the North Atlantic, Terra Nova is a sweeping look at food and work that unsettles our definitions of colonialism in the sixteenth century.”—Bathsheba Demuth, author of Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait“In this bold and imaginative book, Bouchard restores historical significance to a region often overlooked in favor of landed colonial ventures. Rooted in deep research, Terra Nova draws insights from environmental history, food studies, and labor history to tell a profoundly human story. A must read.”—Brett Rushforth, author of Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France“With the skills of a maritime detective, Jack Bouchard went fishing in the archives and returned with captivating results, moving the northwest Atlantic from the margins to the center of our understanding of the early modern basin. The cod, along with the waters it occupied and the humans that fished it, was as important to that age as sugar or tobacco. Many who go fishing tell tall tales about the one that got away. Bouchard’s story is all the better because it is true.”—Peter C. Mancall, author of The Trials of Thomas Morton: An Anglican Lawyer, His Puritan Foes, and the Battle for a New England

Jack Bouchard is assistant professor of environmental history at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. He has published widely on the histories of fishing, islands, and foodways. He lives in Highland Park, NJ.

“Bouchard has simultaneously laid the groundwork for understanding the more ‘formal’ colonial objectives that would later follow. . . while also providing a productive glimpse into a consequential corner of the Atlantic.”—Zeb Baker-Smith, Aspects of History2026 George Perkins Marsh Prize finalist, sponsored by ASEHWinner of the John R. Lyman Book Award in North American maritime history, sponsored by the NASOH2026 Best Book in Canadian Environmental History Prize winner, sponsored by the Network in Canadian History and Environment“This engagingly written history of the Atlantic world in the sixteenth century is crammed with fascinating facts and anecdotes, and reveals a teeming world of fish, fishworkers, and sailing ships that made the waters and shores of Newfoundland and adjacent lands into a hive of activity and a hub of maritime connections.”—Allan Greer, author of Property and Dispossession: Natives, Empires and Land in Early Modern North America“By extending the history of cod fishing back into the sixteenth century, this important book helps us reenvision colonial history through the lens of Terra Nova, a malleable maritime space of colonial extraction without land‑based settlement.”—Jakobina K. Arch, author of Bringing Whales Ashore: Oceans and the Environment of Early Modern Japan“An essential read on the worlds made by people, fish, and ocean in the North Atlantic, Terra Nova is a sweeping look at food and work that unsettles our definitions of colonialism in the sixteenth century.”—Bathsheba Demuth, author of Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait“In this bold and imaginative book, Bouchard restores historical significance to a region often overlooked in favor of landed colonial ventures. Rooted in deep research, Terra Nova draws insights from environmental history, food studies, and labor history to tell a profoundly human story. A must read.”—Brett Rushforth, author of Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France“With the skills of a maritime detective, Jack Bouchard went fishing in the archives and returned with captivating results, moving the northwest Atlantic from the margins to the center of our understanding of the early modern basin. The cod, along with the waters it occupied and the humans that fished it, was as important to that age as sugar or tobacco. Many who go fishing tell tall tales about the one that got away. Bouchard’s story is all the better because it is true.”—Peter C. Mancall, author of The Trials of Thomas Morton: An Anglican Lawyer, His Puritan Foes, and the Battle for a New England

Jack Bouchard is assistant professor of environmental history at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. He has published widely on the histories of fishing, islands, and foodways. He lives in Highland Park, NJ.

“Bouchard has simultaneously laid the groundwork for understanding the more ‘formal’ colonial objectives that would later follow. . . while also providing a productive glimpse into a consequential corner of the Atlantic.”—Zeb Baker-Smith, Aspects of History2026 George Perkins Marsh Prize finalist, sponsored by ASEHWinner of the John R. Lyman Book Award in North American maritime history, sponsored by the NASOH2026 Best Book in Canadian Environmental History Prize winner, sponsored by the Network in Canadian History and Environment“This engagingly written history of the Atlantic world in the sixteenth century is crammed with fascinating facts and anecdotes, and reveals a teeming world of fish, fishworkers, and sailing ships that made the waters and shores of Newfoundland and adjacent lands into a hive of activity and a hub of maritime connections.”—Allan Greer, author of Property and Dispossession: Natives, Empires and Land in Early Modern North America“By extending the history of cod fishing back into the sixteenth century, this important book helps us reenvision colonial history through the lens of Terra Nova, a malleable maritime space of colonial extraction without land‑based settlement.”—Jakobina K. Arch, author of Bringing Whales Ashore: Oceans and the Environment of Early Modern Japan“An essential read on the worlds made by people, fish, and ocean in the North Atlantic, Terra Nova is a sweeping look at food and work that unsettles our definitions of colonialism in the sixteenth century.”—Bathsheba Demuth, author of Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait“In this bold and imaginative book, Bouchard restores historical significance to a region often overlooked in favor of landed colonial ventures. Rooted in deep research, Terra Nova draws insights from environmental history, food studies, and labor history to tell a profoundly human story. A must read.”—Brett Rushforth, author of Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France“With the skills of a maritime detective, Jack Bouchard went fishing in the archives and returned with captivating results, moving the northwest Atlantic from the margins to the center of our understanding of the early modern basin. The cod, along with the waters it occupied and the humans that fished it, was as important to that age as sugar or tobacco. Many who go fishing tell tall tales about the one that got away. Bouchard’s story is all the better because it is true.”—Peter C. Mancall, author of The Trials of Thomas Morton: An Anglican Lawyer, His Puritan Foes, and the Battle for a New England