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Pacific Worlds : A History of Seas, Peoples, and Cultures.  

by Matt K. Matsuda

Cambridge University Press, 2012

New Book Shelf: DU28.3 .M34 2012

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"Asia, the Pacific Islands and the coasts of the Americas have long been studied separately. This history of the Pacific traces the global interactions and remarkable peoples that have connected these regions with each other and with Europe and the Indian Ocean, for millennia. From ancient canoe navigators, monumental civilizations, pirates and seaborne empires, to the rise of nuclear testing and global warming, the author ranges across the frontiers of colonial history, anthropology and Pacific Rim economics and politics, piecing together a history of the region.

The book identifies and draws together the defining threads and extraordinary personal narratives which have contributed to this history, showing how localized contacts and contests have often blossomed into global struggles over colonialism, tourism and the rise of Asian economies. Drawing on Asian, Oceanian, European, American, ancient and modern narratives, the author assembles a Pacific region from a global perspective."

Summary from publisher