Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History


The Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History, John B. Hattendorf, editor in chief, was published by Oxford University Press in 2007. The work was issued in four volumes in print and online in the . The encyclopedia is devoted to global maritime history and contains some 1.6 million words in more than 950 articles written by more than 400 authors in nearly 50 different countries.
In summarizing its contents, Oxford University Press states that:

Awards

In January 2008, the American Library Association at its annual meeting in Philadelphia announced that it would award its Dartmouth Medal to the Encyclopedia. The ALA news release explained:
Of all the titles the Dartmouth Medal Committee considered for this year's award, one left the others in its wake. You might say it floated to the top, or that it swam past the competition. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History is the first English-language scholarly reference log of its kind. Its four volumes hold a cargo of nearly one thousand signed entries and four hundred illustrations. One can scarcely fathom the depths of its contents. It contains all the seafaring topics you may expect "Shipwrecks," "Navigators," and "Ballast" and many you may not "Film," "Terrorism," and "Religion." Not only did the international crew of naval, academic, and independent authors admirably achieve their goal of creating an interdisciplinary resource, they also made it fun. This title is destined to be the flagship resource in maritime history for years to come.