Criticism
Some critics have complained that Atlantic history is little more than imperial history under another name. Others argue that it is simultaneously too expansive (pretending to subsume both of the American continents, Africa and Europe, without seriously engaging with them) and too small (arbitrarily isolating the Atlantic from other bodies of water).
Steele (2009), a Canadian scholar, argues that Atlantic history will tend to draw students beyond their national myths, while offering historical support for such policies as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Organization of American States, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the New Europe, Christendom, and even the United Nations. He concludes, "The early modern Atlantic can even be read as a natural antechamber for American‐led globalization of capitalism and serve as an historical challenge to the coalescing New Europe. No wonder that the academic reception of the new Atlantic history has been enthusiastic in the United States, and less so in Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal, where histories of national Atlantic empires continue to thrive."
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