The Baltic

On the dustcover, Joachim Whaley rightly calls this book by Michael North a tour de force. It spans over a millennium, from the eighth to the beginning of the twenty-first century and covers the wide array of regions bordering the Baltic Sea. This translation of a revised version of the 2011 Geschichte der Ostsee is a pioneering history of the Baltic Anrainer and their entanglements, which, traditionally, have been treated under the aegis of national history. The illustrations are helpful, although reduced in number compared with the German original. The bibliography is most comprehensive, while the notes remain somewhat sparse. The subtitle, Handel und Kulturen (Commerce and Cultures), of the German version has wisely been dropped, as the book is more than cultural trade history. A strong point, indeed, is the solid grounding in political history, although these parts might at first glance seem old-fashioned and hard to digest. Yet they are essential, as they provide the welcome, and indeed necessary, grounding for the understanding of the manifold commercial and cultural developments, and no doubt enhance the book’s long-term value as a perhaps less fashionable but more solid general history. Considering the breadth and scope of the work, it is quite natural that it must remain somewhat descriptive and, at times, a trifle disjointed

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