When the Waves Ruled Britannia

Jonathan Scott is Professor of History at the University of Auckland. His previous publications include England's Troubles: Seventeenth-Century English Political Instability in European Context (Cambridge University Press, 2000) and Commonwealth Principles: Republican Writing of the English Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2004).

• Introduction: Britain's island idea; 1. Community of water; 2. Queen of Sparta; 3. The discipline of the sea; 4. Ark of war; 5. Blowing a dead coal; 6. The British Empire in Europe; 7. The world in an island; 8. Anticontinentalism; 9. What continent?; Conclusion: floating islands.

'This witty, allusive and important study illuminates how 'the discipline of the sea' made England an island nation and Britain an imperial power. By showing how British history, politics and identity were formed through and against not only other islands but also Asia and continental Europe, Scott brings postcolonial, transnational and revisionist perspectives into productive proximity to produce a new and tantalizing reading of the languages of power.' Kathleen Wilson, State University of New York, Stony Brook