Mastering the Inland Seas: How Lighthouses, Navigational Aids, and Harbors Transformed the Great Lakes and America

Theodore Karamanski

Theodore J. Karamanski's sweeping maritime history demonstrates the far-ranging impact that the tools and infrastructure developed for navigating the Great Lakes had on the national economies, politics, and environment of continental North America. Synthesizing popular histories and original scholarship, Karamanski weaves a colorful narrative illustrating how disparate private and government interests transformed these vast and dangerous waters into the largest inland water transportation system in the world.

Karamanski explores both the navigational and sailing tools of First Nations peoples and the dismissive and foolhardy attitude of early European maritime sailors. He investigates the role played by commercial boats in the Underground Railroad as well as how the federal development of crucial navigational resources exacerbated sectionalism in the antebellum United States. Ultimately Mastering the Inland Seas shows the undeniable environmental impact of technologies used by the modern commercial maritime industry. This expansive story illuminates how infrastructure investment in the region's interconnected waterways contributed to North America's lasting economic and political development.

21-Apr-20

University of Wisconsin Press

9780299326333

Theodore J. Karamanski. Mastering the Inland Seas: How Lighthouses, Navigational Aids, and Harbors Transformed the Great Lakes and America, University of Wisconsin Press, 2020. https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5841.htm