Welcome!
This is the Book Reviews section of Global Maritime History! We focus on reviews of nonfiction books on maritime history, broadly conceived which have been recently published.
We encourage scholars both within and outside the field to review books, and we are happy to work with historians and researchers at all types of academic institutions, with graduate students at all levels, and with alt-scholars in professions outside the academy.
If you are interested in reviewing a book, please visit our list of available books for review and then fill out our GMH Reviewer Form.
Book reviews should be between 500-1000 words or no more than 3 pages of 12pt. Times New Roman double-spaced. The review itself should be submitted to the book review editor. Reviews are published on Mondays on a first-come first-served basis. The editor will let you know what day your review will appear on the site.
Reviews can be submitted in an editable format (not PDF or Read-only) either as an attachment or as a shared link to the editor. The review should be written in accessible academic style in either British or American English. Any page references to the text under review should appear as simple in-text citations (p. xx) with any references to other works appearing as footnotes in Chicago style. References to websites should also appear as footnotes (article, website, date if applicable, [hyperlink].) If you have any questions about this, please do not hesitate to contact the book review editor.
The review should summarize the book’s main arguments and evidence, and we encourage discussions of historiography, the significance of the book to maritime scholarship or the scholarship of broader fields, thoughts on the book’s use in the classroom, and/or a consideration of the book’s audience. Your review may be edited for style and clarity; however, any significant changes will be returned to reviewers for their approval.
Authors are encouraged to include a max-100 word bio, which will be featured at the conclusion of the review. Also, if applicable, authors are can to add their Twitter and/or Instagram handles, which will be included in the appropriate GMH social media posts about the publication of their review.
Please be aware that upon publication reviews submitted to GMH will be forwarded to the book’s publishers according to their request.
GMH has a list of books for which we are currently seeking reviewers, but we also encourage readers, reviewers, authors, and publishers to make book suggestions if a title is not listed.
Suggestions should have a nonfiction topic that falls within Global Maritime History’s purview of “maritime history, broadly conceived.”
We encourage recommendations that fall outside of the early-modern or modern Western-European Atlantic world, are interested in studies that focus on coastal subjects who do not necessarily go to sea, and include in-land waterways, man-made water systems, and rivers as “maritime.” We are interested in a wide variety of audiences, so suggestions are not limited to academic publications.
Books should be either monographs or edited volumes published within the past two years, with an emphasis on recently published works. Book which have been republished as new editions are not eligible unless their original publication date was in the last two years.
If you would like to submit a book suggestion, please get in touch with our book review editor.
Dr. Meaghan Walker is our current book review editor.
