Elliot's Empires of the Atlantic World: Book Reviews

• Cervantes, Fernando. The Times Literary Supplement. No.5392 (August 4, 2006) p.3-4

“This appraisal can barely begin to do justice to the formidable scholarship an dthe wealth of suggestions and insights contained in this magnificent book…a detailed and illuminating comparative synthesis of both, with hardly a dull paragraph despite its dispassionate perhaps at times too dispassionate scholarship, is a mighty triumph.”

• Johnson, Richard R. The Journal of American History. Vol.93 no.4 (March 2007) p.1205-6

“Both for its own insights and its alerting readers to the findings of scholarship beyond their usual field of study, this is an indispensable and richly rewarding contribution to both the art of comparative history and the story of early America.”

• Morrissey, Robert. American Indian Culture and Research Journal. p.220-23

“Rather than producing generalities, this book drives at fascinating and illuminating particularities. The book’s real value is in its use of comparisons to illuminate the empires’ myriad characteristics, both subtle and essential. For readers of this journal, one of the book’s strengths is certainly in its constant attention to the place of indigenous peoples within the two imperial cultures under investigation. Still, it must be said that the book’s focus is mostly on Europeans and their plight; a highly illuminating chapter on identity gives almost no consideration to indigenous identities.”


• Phillips, Carla Rahn. Eighteenth-Century Studies. Vol.41 no.1 (Fall 2007) p.110-13

“In Empires of the Atlantic World, J. H. Elliot offers a masterful synthesis of several colonial histories that is unlikely to be surpassed in the near future.”


• Schmidt-Nowara, Christopher. Social History. Vol.32 no.2 (May 2007) p.219-22

“His work, a singular combination of gripping narrative and deft structural analysis, is thus keenly attuned to the ironic aspects of Spanish and British imperial expansion in the Americas.”

• Seed, Patricia. Journal of British Studies. Vol.47 no.3 (July 2008) p.685-6

“Elliot’s stance on British colonization remains far too flattering and misses many opportunities to make critical points…In choosing a lengthy historical time period, Elliot creates an extensive framework for future comparative work on the history of the Americas.”

• Steele, Ian K. The American Historical Review. Vol.112 no.3 (June 2007) p. 800-2

“Such simplicity promises much less than this insightful and illuminating exploration delivers…Elliot’s Atlantic history is both innovative and traditional.”

• Stein, Stanley J. The Hispanic American Historical Review. Vol.87 no.4 (November 2007) p.780-3

“This is a remarkable tour de force, in thematic and chronological coverage bond, seamlessly shifting between two colonial cultures and their metropoles. Elliot crafts a political, institutional, and cultural narrative spiced with usually well-founded, penetrating insight – withal, infused with an understandable British triumphalism in its repeated recourse to Protestantism and English libertarianism…an outstanding contribution to the historian’s craft.”