The historiographical reception of A. J. R. Russell-Wood’s A World on the Move: The Portuguese in Africa, Asia, and America, 1415–1808

The book I have been asked to review was first published by Carcanet in 1992, in Manchester, under the title A World on the Move: The Portuguese in Africa, Asia, and America, 1415–1808. It was commissioned by the National Commission for the Commemoration of the Portuguese Discoveries (Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses [CNCDP]), a fact which Russell-Wood acknowledges in the opening pages of the first edition. In that same year of 1992, its importance was recognized in Portugal through the prestigious D. João de Castro International Award, given by the CNCDP, which acknowledges the best work on Portuguese overseas expansion written by a non-Portuguese author. In 1998, the book was reissued in paperback form by the Johns Hopkins University Press under the title The Portuguese Empire, 1415–1808.