Abstract

The article reconstructs the several political genealogies of Atlantic history and the equally many methodological approaches and interpretations of the Atlantic world, discussing how these transnational histories relate to the latest historiographical per¬spectives on global history. This review essay discusses the "white" Euro-American Atlantic, the "black" and "red" Atlantic, and the commercial and consumerist At¬lantic. It does so by highlighting how different tonalities concur to define a diverse and changing Atlantic, depending on the subjective, geographic, cultural or social perspective one adopts. From different points of observation, the article focuses on the reasons for the divergence between Atlantic history and political history, and the opportunities of dialogue between the two.