Book Review of Michael Pearson ( ed.). Trade, Circulation, and Flow in the Indian Ocean World. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies, 2015. 212pp, 3 figures, 19 maps, 5 tables. hardback ISBN:978-1-137-56488-7, E-PUB ISBN: 978-1-137-56623-2.

Abstract

This collaborative volume on pre-modem interaction edited by Michael Pearson is certainly an advance in historiography. Trade, Circulation, and Flow in the Indian Ocean World differs significantly from conventional approaches to connectivity by extending the geographical boundaries of the Indian Ocean World, redefining it as stretching from near the Cape of Good Hope to the easternmost end of Indonesia and northward to the South China Sea. Another point of departure is that this work is multi-disciplinary and subsequently much broader in scope than standard maritime histories, incorporating data from economic history, trade, anthropology and archaeology, the latter obviously providing greater time-depth than written documents.