Best of the EAA Archives: Maritime History Edition

Maritime History is a field of study that often is not integrated into high school or beginning undergraduate survey courses. The articles and essay below, from our fall 2014 special section “Maritime Asia,” provide readers with a variety of choices that are applicable to world history, geography, and anthropology courses.

The “Best of EAA Articles” are a series of posts that include outstanding articles, essays, interviews, and reviews that are among the over 1,500 archived open-access materials available on the Education About Asia website. Titles, short annotations, and links are below.

• “When the World Came to Southeast Asia: Malacca and the Global Economy” Historian and Southeast Asia specialist Michael Vann uses a once-great port city in assisting readers to understand that Southeast Asia has played an important role for a long time in the global economy.

• “Maritime Southeast Asia: Not Just a Crossroads” Historian and anthropologist Jennifer Gaynor’s essay begins in prehistoric times with her depiction of the development of connections and exchange circuits that have created both Southeast Asian and global networks.

• “The Saga of Manjiro” Journalist and historian Junji Kitadai tells the story of a Japanese fisherman who became the first person from the archipelago to live in the United States.

• “Japan and the Sea” Anthropologists Theodore and Victoria Bestor’s article is a superb general introduction to the historic and contemporary impact of the seas and ocean in shaping the lives of Japanese.

• “The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World” Naval War College Professor James Holmes writes an engaging review of a truly unique general work in world history.

Best of EAA Articles Number 5. Read the previous posts in this series.

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