The Outlaw Sea
A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime
Farrar Straus & Giroux · Print & ebook · June 1, 2005
The open ocean--that vast expanse of international waters--spreads across three-fourths of the globe.
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- Who it’s for
- A clear-eyed, lyrical look at the open ocean’s freedoms and the trouble they shelter.
- Themes
- Freedom and lawlessness at sea, Shipping's human and environmental costs, Piracy and maritime terrorism
- Genres
- Maritime History & Piracy, Criminology, Ships & Shipbuilding
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Start with this bookAbout this book
The open ocean--that vast expanse of international waters--spreads across three-fourths of the globe. It is a place of storms and danger, both natural and manmade. And at a time when every last patch of land is claimed by one government or another, it is a place that remains radically free. With typically understated lyricism, William Langewiesche explores this ocean world and the enterprises--licit and illicit--that flourish in the privacy afforded by its horizons.
Continue reading
But its efficiencies are accompanied by global problems--shipwrecks and pollution, the hard lives and deaths of the crews of the gargantuan ships, and the growth of two pathogens: a modern and sophisticated strain of piracy and its close cousin, the maritime form of the new stateless terrorism. This is the outlaw sea that Langewiesche brings startlingly into view. The ocean is our world, he reminds us, and it is wild.
Wild Waters
A clear-eyed, lyrical look at the open ocean’s freedoms and the trouble they shelter.
Come here for
- The strange freedom of waters beyond national borders
- Crime and commerce sharing the same horizon
Expect
- Understated lyricism alongside storms, wrecks, and pollution
- A wide-angle view of crews’ hard lives and deaths
Where it sits
| Maritime History & Piracy | 75% |
|---|---|
| Criminology | 50% |
| Ships & Shipbuilding | 39% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- How Transportation Works
- Sociology
- Maritime History
- Authors
- William Langewiesche
- Publisher
- Farrar Straus & Giroux
- Published
- June 1, 2005
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Freedom and lawlessness at sea · Shipping's human and environmental costs · Piracy and maritime terrorism
- Reading lane
- How Transportation Works