Maritime—Aquatic; Territorial—Territoriality: Tracing Michael N. Pearson’s Work on the Sea

Abstract

This essay traces Michael Pearson’s work from writing maritime history to a more inclusive oceanic history, and also his later interest in water histories. It evokes Michael’s nostalgic remembering of the littoral and his condemnation of the territorialisation of the shore and the seas from the 1990s that changed its nature radically. It argues that Michael’s notion of territoriality remains unfinished because he ignored the flows of global capital that re-ordered territoriality.