Maritime History and Identity: The Sea and Culture in the Modern World

The sea and its relation to human life has always been a subject of fascination for historians. For the first time, this book looks at the field of Maritime History through the prism of identity - imperial, national, regional, gender and religious - from maritime great powers such as Britain, Germany and Japan, to smaller players such as Norway and Italy. It considers the variety of people who interacted with the sea in different ways - from merchant sailors to naval officers and, on land, from dockworkers to the civilians who participated in the sea-based festivals in the Mediterranean port city of Messina. A cultural strand runs through the volume, with chapters focusing on the cultural construction of the naval hero in literature, poetry, music and art, and analysing how sailors used tattoos to express aspects of their identity in the nineteenth century. By bringing together a variety of themes related to identity, this book provides an important and unique addition to the historiography, which will be essential reading for all scholars of maritime and naval history and those concerned with the question of identity.