A "significant historic and literary achievement”: that’s what the Associated Press called Martin W. Sandler’s enthralling Resolute. Now, Sandler returns to the high seas, this time for an in-depth look at the Atlantic, those who sailed across it, and the world-shifting transformations wrought by those explorers and travelers. Since 300 B.C.E., the Atlantic has served as the corridor for fundamental exchanges of peoples and technologies, a pathway for the transfer of ideas and cultures that defined and challenged communities across wide spans of time and space. This, the first illustrated and comprehensive history of the Atlantic World, is at the forefront of an exciting new wave of study in universities and think tanks. Atlantic History is an increasingly dynamic field of scholarship based on the notion that the Americas, Africa, and Europe have composed a regional system from the late 15th century to the present. Sandler explores the historical, socioeconomic, political, scientific, and cultural developments that occurred throughout this important region and that shaped the modern world to this very day. They include everything from exploration and discovery, the dissemination of ideas, and the growth of global commerce, and the fall of imperialism. Lavishly illustrated with exquisite antique maps, period paintings and engravings, documents, political cartoons, and photographs, this unique volume is an engaging read sure to appeal to audiences everywhere.