The Edwin Fox (Hardcover)

Boyd Cothran

ISBN 10: 1469676559 / ISBN 13: 9781469676555

Published by The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2023

About this Item

Hardcover. It began as a small, slow, and unadorned sailing vesselin a word, ordinary. Later, it was a weary workhorse in the age of steam. But the story of the Edwin Fox reveals how an everyday merchant ship drew together a changing world and its people in an extraordinary age of rising empires, sweeping economic transformation, and social change. This fascinating work of global history offers a vividly detailed and engaging narrative of globalization writ small, viewed from the decks and holds of a single vessel. The Edwin Fox connected the lives and histories of millions, though most never even saw it. Built in Calcutta in 1853, the Edwin Fox was chartered by the British navy as a troop transport during the Crimean War. In the following decades, it was sold, recommissioned, and refitted by an increasingly far-flung constellation of militaries and merchants. It sailed to exotic ports carrying luxury goods, mundane wares, and all kinds of people: not just soldiers and officials but indentured laborers brought from China to Cuba, convicts and settlers being transported from the British Empire to western Australia and New Zealandwith dire consequences for local Indigenous peoplesand others. But the power of this story rests in the everyday ways people, nations, economies, and ideas were knitted together in this foundational era of our modern world. Readers will never see globalization the same way again. It began as a small, slow, and unadorned sailing vessel - in a word, ordinary. Later, it was a weary workhorse in the age of steam. But the story of the Edwin Fox reveals how an everyday merchant ship drew together a changing world and its people in an age of rising empires, economic transformation, and social change. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781469676555

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Edwin Fox (Hardcover)
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1469676559
• ISBN 13: 9781469676555
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

It began as a small, slow, and unadorned sailing vessel—in a word, ordinary. Later, it was a weary workhorse in the age of steam. But the story of the Edwin Fox reveals how an everyday merchant ship drew together a changing world and its people in an extraordinary age of rising empires, sweeping economic transformation, and social change. This fascinating work of global history offers a vividly detailed and engaging narrative of globalization writ small, viewed from the decks and holds of a single vessel. The Edwin Fox connected the lives and histories of millions, though most never even saw it.

Built in Calcutta in 1853, the Edwin Fox was chartered by the British navy as a troop transport during the Crimean War. In the following decades, it was sold, recommissioned, and refitted by an increasingly far-flung constellation of militaries and merchants. It sailed to exotic ports carrying luxury goods, mundane wares, and all kinds of people: not just soldiers and officials but indentured laborers brought from China to Cuba, convicts and settlers being transported from the British Empire to western Australia and New Zealand—with dire consequences for local Indigenous peoples—and others. But the power of this story rests in the everyday ways people, nations, economies, and ideas were knitted together in this foundational era of our modern world.

About the Authors

Boyd Cothran is associate professor of history at York University.

Adrian Shubert is professor emeritus of history at York University and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.