CofC Professors Publish Book on the Port Cities of Atlantic World

Jacob Steere-Williams, associate professor history and director of the master of arts in history program, and Blake Scott, associate professor of international studies, have co-edited a book, Port Cities of the Atlantic World: Sea-Facing Histories of the US South (University of South Carolina Press).

Port Cities of the Atlantic World brings together a collection of essays that examine the centuries-long transatlantic transportation of people, goods and ideas with a focus on the impact of that trade on what would become the American South. Employing a wide temporal range and broad geographic scope, the scholars contributing to this volume call for a sea-facing history of the South, one that connects that terrestrial region to this expansive maritime history.

“This is a groundbreaking historical account of the changes wrought in port cities connected to Charleston from the 17th century to the present,” says Steere-Williams.

By bringing the study up to the 20th century in the collection’s final section, Steere-Williams and Scott make the case for the lasting influence of these port cities – and Atlantic world history – on the economy, society and culture of the contemporary South.