Longlisted for the 2025 BSHS Hughes Prize

'Enthralling' Philip Ball

'Ingenious' Sujit Sivasundaram

In Tracks on the Ocean, Sara Caputo explains how our journeys around the world became fixed lines on maps - and how these journey lines themselves reshaped maps and the way we perceive the world. From Captain Cook's route across the South Seas to the disorienting power of digital technology, the tracks we have left on the oceans - trading, exploring, and conquering - are a hidden record of humanity's impact on the planet. By uncovering their histories, Caputo reveals a fascinating new history of maritime travel and modernity.

Combining human history, cartography, literature, and climate science, Tracks on the Ocean shows how, in the pursuit of discovery, we have changed the world.

Pages: 320, Year of Publication: 0904, Dimensions: 12.8x12.8cm