The first comprehensive account to place the Pacific Islands, the Pacific Rim and the Pacific Ocean into the perspective of world history. A distinguished international team of historians provides a multidimensional account of the Pacific, its inhabitants and the lands within and around it over 50,000 years, with special attention to the peoples of Oceania. It providing chronological coverage along with analyses of themes such as the environment, migration and the economy; religion, law and science; race, gender and politics.

David Armitage is the Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History at Harvard University, USA. He is the author of The Declaration of Independence: A Global History and Foundations of Modern International Thought, and co-editor of The British Atlantic World, 1500-1800, 2nd edition, and The Age of Revolutions in Global Context, c. 1760-1840. Alison Bashford is Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge, UK. She has taught Pacific and Australian history at the University of Sydney, Australia, and Harvard University, USA. She is the author of, most recently, Global Population: History, Geopolitics and Life on Earth, and co-editor of The Cambridge History of Australia.