To Master the Boundless Sea
The U.S. Navy, the Marine Environment, and the Cartography of Empire
By Jason W. Smith
280 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 20 halftones
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Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-4044-0
Published: June 2018 -
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4696-4045-7
Published: April 2018 -
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-5922-0
Published: February 2020
Flows, Migrations, and Exchanges
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- Hardcover $35.00
- Paperback $27.95
- E-Book $19.99
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Awards & distinctions
2019 John Lyman Book Award in Naval and Maritime Science and Technology, North American Society for Oceanic History
2019 John Gardner Maritime Research Award, Fellows of the G. W. Blunt White Library
A 2018 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
By recasting and deepening our understanding of the U.S. Navy and the United States at sea, Smith brings to the fore the overlooked work of naval hydrographers, surveyors, and cartographers. In the nautical chart’s soundings, names, symbols, and embedded narratives, Smith recounts the largely untold story of a young nation looking to extend its power over the boundless sea.
About the Author
Jason W. Smith is assistant professor of history at Southern Connecticut State University.
For more information about Jason W. Smith, visit
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Reviews
“ In To Master the Boundless Sea, Smith (SCSU) covers the oft-told story of the 19th-century US Navy in a compelling new way.”--Choice Reviews
“This important book deserves a wide readership.”--Choice Reviews
“In this well-researched book, Smith examines the extension of American knowledge during the nineteenth century and focuses in particular on the American navy.”--Journal of Military History
“Any compelling book like To Master the Boundless Sea makes a reader wish for more: for more reference and comparison to the British empire, for instance. But Smith has already engaged with so many historiographies, and assembled such a rich argument and narrative, that To Master the Boundless Sea will benefit many historians grappling with American overseas empire, science, and the environment in the 19th century. The book deserves to be widely read.”--Diplomatic History
“An engaging and thoughtful book—ambitious in its scope, creative in its organization, and masterful in its execution.”--Isis Review
“Offers a new argument for the U.S. Navy’s role in the pursuit and development of American empire . . . . Stands very usefully at the intersection of numerous fields of history: military history, naval history, the history of science, maritime history, and environmental history.”--Diplomatic History