Since the late 1960s, Michael Pearson’s work has been at the forefront of thestudy of the Indian Ocean World. Pearson’s unparalleled contribution to thefield has long been recognized by his pears. In 1981, the famed historian ofGoa, Teotonio R. de Souza, wrote in an introduction to one of Pearson’s booksthat it ‘will stand out as the best effort on the part of a non-Indian historianto do justice to the Indian component of Indo-Portuguese history.’ In 2004,Pearson spoke to this acclaim in an interview with Frederick Noronha, a journalist-publisher based in Goa. He said: ‘Certainly this is what I have wantedto achieve when I write about the Portuguese in India: to locate them in theIndian context in which they operated and by which they were constrained.This is a deliberate attempt to counter the triumphalism, and even racism, ofmuch Portuguese writing on their empire.’ But Pearson’s influence was notlimited to Goa and the coastal western India. Across nearly four decades ofwork, Pearson was always a leader in developing the longue durée approach tostudying the Indian Ocean World.To honor this influence, the editors of the Journal of Indian Ocean WorldStudies have compiled an exhaustive bibliography of Michael Pearson’s work.They have also appended short descriptions to some of his most importanttexts. Limited space meant that abstracts could not be attached to each reference. The editors decided that where they existed, abstracts written by Pearson or his co-editors would be prioritized. They then selected some of his works without abstracts to write their own abstracts or mini reviews (indicated with **). Particular prominence has been given to some of his earlier, lesser-known works. The intention was to use the space to reflect the diversity of Pearson’s research, while highlighting some of its core themes.
Revisiting Michael Pearson’s Indian Ocean Littoral
