"Ranging over the entire Mediterranean from the Iron Age to the dawn of the Roman Empire, Manning draws on new evidence to rethink ancient history as a whole. Along the way, he makes clear what drove economic and institutional development in the ancient world: not huge empires but cross-cultural exchange and a very different sort of politics."--Philip T. Hoffman, author of Why Did Europe Conquer the World?

"For too long, specialists have drawn lines through the ancient Mediterranean, with Egypt and the Near East on one side and Greece and Rome on the other. True to its title, The Open Sea washes these lines away, reuniting what should never have been separated. Manning provides a unified view of the economies of the first millennium BC, and everyone interested in the period will want to read this book."--Ian Morris, author of Why the West Rules--for Now