"Among the numerous accomplishments of this impressive book, the most striking may be its achievement of extending history from its unusual terrestrial focus to the ocean. David Igler's The Great Ocean joins a growing list of histories of ocean basins and world histories that focus on the maritime realm.... Igler's contribution not only puts the sea at the center, but succeeds in telling a story that illuminates both human history and the history of a part of the ocean, the waterscape between the coastal Americas and islands scattered throughout the Pacific." - Helen M. Rozwadowsi, American Historical Review