Terra Nova: Food, Water, and Work in an Early Atlantic World

European mariners began fishing the northwest Atlantic in the early 1500s, long before permanent settlements took hold. They returned season after season, drawn by cod-rich waters off the coast of what is now eastern Canada. Jack Bouchard’s account traces the formation of these early fisheries, showing how food production, labor, and environment shaped one of the most significant—and overlooked—maritime zones of the early modern world.

This is a history grounded in the daily realities of work at sea and sometimes on shore. Bouchard draws on scattered archival sources to reconstruct the lives of the fishermen, whalers, and Indigenous traders who made this seasonal enterprise possible. These were communities built around extraction rather than settlement, where migration followed the rhythms of ice and fish, not the directives of empire.

The book places the Terra Nova fishery within a broader Atlantic context, connecting it to trade routes, environmental change, and the political and economic forces reshaping Europe and the Americas. Comparisons between Indigenous and European approaches to labor and resource use add depth, while also revealing how uneven the documentary record can be.

Written with clarity and supported by original research, this is a valuable addition to the growing literature on early Atlantic history. Readers drawn to food history, maritime labor, and environmental change—especially those who admired Mark Kurlansky’s Cod—will find much to explore.

Hardcover. Black-and-white illustrations.