Book Description
Across the centuries and from many lands, women have set forth on journeys of exploration. Visionaries, adventurers, artists, and scientists, these women challenged the limitations, both physical and social, of their times and, in the face of formidable challenges, expanded the world's body of knowledge.
Yet despite their extraordinary achievements, they have remained unknown and unsung for too long.
No longer. The stories of more than eighty extraordinary explorers and adventurers are vividly recounted and stunningly illustrated in
Women of Discovery. Here for the first time are gathered the tales of early voyagers, such as the valiant tenth-century Viking adventurer Unn the Deep Minded and seventeenth-century Spanish conquistadora Catalina de Erauso. Intrepid explorers like Mary Kingsley in Africa, Alexandra David-Neel in Tibet, and Freya Stark in the Middle East traveled fearlessly into the blank spaces on the map. Artist explorers, including the great botanical painter Anna Maria Sibylla Merian in Surinam, writer Zora Neale Hurston in Haiti, and photographer Ruth Robertson in South America, captured in their art the beauty and mystery of exotic lands. Many brave women have ventured into extreme environments to bring back knowledge, whether they were aviators like Amelia Earhart, mountaineers like Annie Smith Peck, or Arctic explorers like Irina and Valentina Kuznetsova. And the annals of science would be far poorer without the work of such women as primatologists Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, ethnobotanist Nicole Maxwell, and ichthyologist Eugenie Clark.
This is truly a gathering of heroines, full of tales of courage, talent, intelligence, and sheer determination. With a foreword by renowned journalist Christiane Amanpour,
Women of Discovery is a remarkable book, an achievement in its own right, and certain to thrill anyone captivated by the world-changing drama of exploration.
Customer Reviews:
Carole Herdegen editor of TravelSITE.com. .......2005-03-08
You can read more of Carole Herdegen's book reviews at http://www.travelsite.com/carole/reviews.htm
I have been waiting for a book like this to come along for a very long time. Milbry Polk and Mary Tiegreen's Women of Discovery is truly a celebration of intrepid women down through the ages. Women who conquered fear, resentment, discrimination, finance or lack of education in face of the then prevailing conditions that intimidated and inhibited them from having an unobstructed opportunity to pursue their dreams. Some of these women faced incredible challenges and most of them contributed substantially to our knowledge of the world. . The authors of this book have given us a chance to read about 82 brave but very different women beginning with the early Christian pilgrims in the Middle Ages. Women such as Elizabeth Van Der Woude, Catalina de Erauso, Jeanne Baret and Isabel Grandmaison y Bruno Godin who received no mention during the age of discovery in the 15th to the 18th centuries while their male counterparts, Cortez, Magellan and deGama received fame and glory. The book brings us to the present with the achievement of Louise Hose, an American geologist who, because of her passion for discovery, lead her into the dark, unexplored caves of Mexico and the finding of new life forms.
The book also obviously identifies familiar names like Amelia Mary Earhart, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Mary Leakey, and Margaret Mead. The written biographies range from 500 to 1500 words and almost virtually "come to life" by the authors' use of photography, cartography, watercolors, and drawings.
After reading this book, one could never forget the story of Sue Henderson, the fossil hunter and explorer, who from a very young age chose the pursuit of outdoor nature. At seventeen, she dropped out of school and made a living by finding incredible things underwater. Many pieces of her amber collection reside in the American Museum of Natural History. She is best remembered as a woman who discovered the fossilized Tyrannosaurus Rex in The Badlands of South Dakota in 1990. Appropriately named "Sue" by her colleagues, this 67 million year old creature is one of the world's best examples of dinosaurs and earned $8.36 million at auction.
Another chapter is devoted to Stephanie Schwabe, a geomicrobiologist who, after losing her world-renowned scientist husband in a diving accident, continued his work of discovery in underwater caves formed some ten million years ago. She wrote that "the human race has forgotten what is valuable in life. That true wealth is not money and material things, but the health of your environment and the understanding of it." In her continuing exploration of underwater caves called Blue Holes or the much deeper Black Holes of the world's oceans, Ms Schwabe is credited as discovering totally new species of bacteria.
This book is the perfect gift for every young woman. It is certainly a well- researched tutorial about the brave women who have paved the way for today's modern woman to pursue and achieve her dreams. .
As an admirer of Christiane Amanpour, a CNN broadcast journalist, I can think of no other woman more qualified to be called upon to provide the foreword to this most remarkable and inspiring book.
FINALLY A BOOK ABOUT WOMEN.......2003-09-09
It was so good because I learnt a lot about women lifes and so on. Sorry for my reasons, but its so hard to explain. Thank you.
Great for young girls.......2002-10-04
This is a terrific book and should be given to all girls over the age of 10. My life could have been different if I'd known there were so many wonderful women over the centuries pushing the limits in a multitude of authentic ways. This book is inspiring, motivating and a tear jerker all at the same time.
Much needed subject finally in print.......2001-12-01
I've looked for years for a basic book about women explorers and women who have been adventurous through the ages. Finally here is something that is beautiful, readable, and a great introduction to a group that has been overlooked by most historians. A must read especially for young women/teens who are influenced by the social and cultural values still pushed upon them in society. Great illustrations, photos and layout as well.
Book Description
The astounding story of the eighteenth-century New Englander who traveled farther on four continents than anyone else in his day and who pioneered an American archetype: the restless explorer.
Called a "man of genius" by his close friend Thomas Jefferson, John Ledyard lived, by any standard, a remarkable life. In his thirty-eight years, he accompanied Captain Cook on his last voyage; befriended Jefferson, Lafayette, and Tom Paine in Paris; was the first American citizen to see Alaska, Hawaii, and the west coast of America; and set out to find the source of the Niger by traveling from Cairo across the Sahara. His greatest dream, concocted with Jefferson, was to travel alone around the world and cross the American continent from the Pacific Northwest to the Atlantic. Catherine the Great dashed that dream when she had him arrested in deepest Siberia and escorted back to the Polish border. Ledyard wrote the definitive account of Cook's last voyage and his death at the hands of Hawaiian islanders, and formed a company with John Paul Jones that launched the American fur trade in the Pacific Northwest.
Before the Revolution, Americans by and large didn't travel great distances, rarely venturing west of the Appalachians. Ledyard, with his boundless enthusiasm and wide-ranging intellect, changed all that. In lively prose, journalist James Zug tells the riveting story of this immensely influential character -a Ben Franklin with wanderlust-a uniquely American pioneer.
Customer Reviews:
A World Wanderer.......2006-09-06
When you think of the great American explorers, you pretty much start with Lews & Clark, throw in your Daniel Boone types and assorted mountain men, and then maybe close out with assorted ill-fated Arctic explorers. Few today know of one of the earliest and most widely traveled of this breed, John Ledyard, the American traveler of this book's title.
In his brief life, he dropped out of one of the first classes of the then-new Dartmouth College, sailed around the Caribbean and Atlantic, deserted merchant ships, joined the British army and then the navy, was a member of Cook's fatal third Pacific voyage, became the first American to see Hawaii, Alaska, and the West Coast, traveled across the bulk of Siberia in a quixotic attempt to walk around the world, and met and corresponded with such notables as Thomas Jefferson, James Cook, the Marquis de Lafayette, Joseph Banks the scientist, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris the financier, and many more.
He was an educated man who served as a marine corporal, a collector of vocabularies and handicrafts and tattoos, an amateur ethnologist with a tremendously sympathetic view of indigenous peoples, a theorizer who correctly deduced the connection between the Siberian peoples and the Native Americans, a sponger off wealthy acquaintances and a fancier of fine clothing, and a would-be fur mogul.
Besides his overwhelming wanderlust that drove him relentlessly forward, so that in the last seven years of his life, the longest he stayed in one place was six months, he was possessed of an erratic temper that could flare forth with regrettable consequences. Despite his scholarly gifts, he was not averse to bouts of pugilism or worse: "He got into fistfights in London, started a shoving match in Tonga and challenged a Siberian provincial governor to a duel."
Today he would be (probably correctly) diagnosed as a manic-depressive, but he channeled his energies well. He may also have had a touch of a death wish, as his last journey was singularly ill-advised under the conditions and he seemed to have a premonition of his own doom.
Zug tells Ledyard's story in a mostly unadorned fashion suitable for the layperson, not too heavily weighted down with jargon or digressions. He draws heavily upon primary sources, mostly letters to and from Ledyard, keeping their original idiosyncratic grammar, rhetorical flourishes, and spelling intact. His prose is sometimes a bit clumsy, but he also is capable of an amusing turn of phrase, as when he notes that "Thrashing and punching were not his only reactions to Londoners".
The book includes a couple of maps at the front, a selection of illustrations in the middle, and a section of notes at the end to which the reader should refer periodically.
Ledyard's is an interesting tale told competently, although I feel Zug slightly overstates his significance. But this is a good account nevertheless and certainly a valuable addition to the field of exploration literature.
Great find........2006-02-27
American Traveler: The Life and Adventures of John Ledyard, the Man Who Dreamed of Walking the World is a great find.
John Ledyard lived in interesting times: second half of the 18th century. His 37 years of life was capped by a manic two decade long roller coaster ride across the world. He came of age in pre-Revolutionary War America, then under sketchy circumstances began service in the British military. He served on Cook's third around the World voyage as part of a Marine Guard - their job to prevent mutinies - a unique position to observe the historic exploration, particularly the first contact in the Hawaiian Islands.
After the experience of the third Cook voyage Ledyard seemed to develop a vision of the world. His vision: the world is a benign place for the lone traveler. He believed that he could cross the North American continent so long as he went alone and carried nothing of value other than letters attesting to his good character. Was that possible? It would almost have to be easier then most of what he ended up doing by heading east, from France.
I'm left thinking what if? What if John Ledyard had listened to Jefferson and started in Kentucky. Could he have crossed to the Pacific on foot in the late 1780s? What if? There are many `what ifs' suggested by John Ledyard's story. What ifs about the man and what ifs about the times he lived.
A Must Read for Anyone Who Appreicates Travel.......2006-02-25
I'd never heard of John Ledyard before ordering this book; I greatly enjoy travel and this story is incredible. Every once in awhile, I had to stop turning the pages to reflect upon what I'd just read. The adventure and tales were awesome. More than once, I had to remind myself that this is non-fiction. Ledyard really believed he could walk around the world? I'm not one to lightly label a books as must read, but this one should be on such a list.
Here's to you, John Ledyard.
A portrait of a remarkable 18th Century American.......2005-07-03
John Ledyard has been mostly forgotten today, but this late eighteenth century New England Yankee dreamed of exporing an as-yet largely unknown world and, before his death while still in his thirties, he had accomplished part of that dream. Ledyard, a correspondent of Thomas Jefferson, was very much cast in the mold of an explorer and natural philosopher at the end of the Age of Reason. Russian bureaucracy and xenophobia cut short Ledyard's planned journey around the globe on foot (with water transportation when necessary) and he died on the eve of setting out on an expedition to explore central Africa, so his largest ambitions remained unfulfilled, but nonetheless he had been a companion and chronicler of Captain on his last, fatal voyage to the Pacific.
The First World Citizen.......2005-03-28
I've been fascinated by Ledyard since I first encountered him, in 1989, at a University of Washington history lecture. At the time I was struck by the fact that I'd never heard of him before. How could this guy have been forgotten? Poking around the stacks in the library led me to Sparks' and Watrous' work, but I couldn't believe that somebody wasn't out there researching and writing about Ledyard. I've been poking around ever since. At last, Zug has delivered the biography I've been waiting for.
American Traveler serves as an outstanding introduction to one of the most fascinating figures in American history. Zug does a wonderful job describing Ledyard's relationships with movers and shakers of the late 18th century (particularly Jefferson), as well as his role as a catalyst behind the eventual expansion of American power. However, the real strength of the book is Zug's portrait of Ledyard the world traveler--a guy on the road who, though frustrated by the restrictions of time and petty bureaucracy, takes a genuine interest in the people he encounters. Yes--Ledyard was a spectacular failure as a businessman, but he understood something that many (apparently including P.J. O'Rourke) do not: traveling isn't about arriving at your destination--it's all about the road trip and the people you meet along the way. In this sense, there has never been a more spectacular success than John Ledyard.
Amazon.com
This small volume, companion to an exhibit put on by the Mariners' Museum of Newport News, Virginia, brings readers a little closer to understanding the lives of the passengers and crew of Titanic. The numerous photographs include not only portraits of people on board the ship, but snapshots of several artifacts--including Titanic postcards and passenger lists, as well as John Jacob Astor's gold cuff links and the medal given to the crew of the Carpathia for their rescue efforts.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful Book.......2007-01-20
This book is great for a quick read on the Titanic. The pictures are wonderful and filled with interesting captions. Also, there are brief anecdotes, such as the story behind Mr. Astor's watch. The book discreetly handles such a terrible human tragedy.
Thank you Newport News, VA; Mariners Museum!.......2004-10-04
This is one of the best White Star Line Titanic books I own. As a Titaniac I find the pages of this book to be seen many, many times. Having been to the touring exhibit in Norfolk, and the exhibit at The Mariners Museum I appreciated the effort. This would make one want to visit The Orlando, FL musuem instead of those other things like Universal, or Disney World. Any Titanic, Olympic, or Britannic enthusiast would love this book to add to his/her collection.
The Fortune of owing "Titanic: Fortune & Fate".......2002-11-02
There isn't much to say about the amazing book exept that throught the words and photos of the passangers' letters, diaries, quotes, tickets, staterooms, clothing, ect.; you get an exellent feeling of who was on the Titanic, not just a group as a whole, but you begin to know them as individuals.
Believe me, this "Fortune" is one exellent investment!!![...]
Titanic Fortune and Fate.......2001-01-17
This book must adorn your bookshelf if you are a serious Titanic fan. The book contains everything from a complete passenger list, tantilizing facts and amazing pictures of artifacts that will make any "Titanic-maniac" feel like they're owning the real thing!
As you read the book, you can't help but feel as though you've been transported back to 1912 and feel a part of history...
This book is definately a keeper, Good Work!
Excellent.......1999-12-24
If you're a Titanic buff, then this book is a must-have. The pictures of the artifacts and people, and the factoids that go with them make the stories come alive. What really got to me was the entire passenger list stating the names, ages, class, and if they survived.
Book Description
It was the end for Black Sam Bellamy and his pirates...
The sailors of the Whydah didn't know that the storm was among the worst ever, but they knew they were in a bad storm, For a few hopeful moments, they thought their hard work had turned them out to sea. Then, through the howl of the storm, someone heard the waves slapping the shoreline and the cry of "Breakers! Breakers!" went up again. Frenzy and fear became the order of the day. With a deep knowledge of the sea and the will to survive the pirates began to act on their own, as they had in so many other desperate situations deeply frightened but steadfastly professional.
It was 10 P.M. on April 16, 1717, and the crew of the Whydah had only two hours to live.
...But two centuries later, it became a new beginning.
Obsessed by a boyhood dream of lost pirate treasure, Barry Clifford launched a search for the pirate ship Whydah, which supposedly wrecked on the coast of Cape Cod. Very quickly he realized that he had taken on a daunting task. Others who had tried to find the ship before him had failed. Although locals came forward with gold coins and relics that could only have come from the lost pirate ship, skeptics claimed that the ship didn't really exist or had been picked over by Cape Cod's early settlers more than two hundred years ago when it sank. Ignoring claims that he was a fool and a dreamer, Clifford pressed on, until he found the Whydah...And then the story begins.
Effortlessly weaving pirate Black Sam Bellamy's history with his own story, Clifford tells a tale of pursuit and perseverance, one that shows our inseparable link to the stories of our childhood as well as our connection to the historic past.
As a child, Clifford's uncle would spend long afternoons telling him the story of Black Sam Bellamy, a pirate from England who captured the heart of Cape Cod's lovely Maria Hallert. Bellamy and his crew sailed to the Caribbean to make their fortune, and make it they did, becoming among the most successful pirates of the early eighteenth century. On their return to Cape Cod, where Bellamy planned to reunite with his lover, a powerful storm wrecked the ship at Maria's very doorstep, killing almost all on board.
Mesmerized by the tales of the Whydah and the riches that sank with her, Clifford embarks on a lifelong quest to find the sunken pirate ship and tell the story of her mysterious crew and the age they lived in.
Expedition Whydah tells two equally enthralling stories of obsession: Bellamy's tale of hard work and crafty piracy, and Clifford's own unbelievable quest to fulfill his dream of finding the sunken ship and building a museum to house her relics. What emerges is a fascinating portrait of a long-gone era of unimaginable adventure--and brutality--and a look at two determined men, one from the past, the other from the present, who let nothing get in the way of their goals.
Spirited and colorful, filled with illustrations and photographs of the ship, its treasure, and the team that found her, Expedition Whydah is a spellbinding book that will grab your imagination, just as Clifford's imagination was forever captured as a young boy, when he heard the legend of Black Sam Bellamy for the first time.
Customer Reviews:
Good book.......2007-01-28
I bought this after seeing the Whydah treasure in-person in Provincetown, MA. It was a very informative book, just what I was looking for!
Captain Hornblower.......2006-08-02
In the past few years, thanks largely to Johnny Depp,there has been an explosion of interest in pirates and swashbuckling sea stories. This book came out considerably before all that (1999)but manages to stir up the same degree of interest for those who are drawn to this topic. I recall being fascinated from the first; any sort of buried-treasure tale is enough to get me to pull out my metal detector and go out and dig holes in the lawn, but the mere name of the ship - "Whydah" - for some reason embodies the spirit of piracy. I wanted to go out and join the team, in any capacity, just to be there when they found stuff.
In the interests of that, I put aside all other current reading material and absorbed this book. I found it highly readable and very informative about a wide range of topics - the life of a pirate in 1717, the topography of Cape Cod then and now, the construction and appointments of sailing vessels ancient and modern, and the deplorably predictable barricade-building by bureaucracy in any number of ways. Unfortunately, it is built in for pencil-pushers and decision-makers - most of whom are academics only, with no practical knowledge of what they're ruling on - to impede progress, and apparently they impeded Mr Clifford on a regular basis.
Barry Clifford, a salvager by trade, was infected by the story of the Whydah at an early age, by his uncle, who lived pretty much within sight of where the ship had gone down over 200 years before. The tale ate away at Clifford through years of wanderings that took him as far as Colorado but which eventually brought him home to the Cape Cod area (actual home base; Martha's Vineyard). A good part of the book is about his struggles to find funding and backers for his decision to go after the Whydah, and it was this part of the narrative I found particularly tiresome; originally he believed $250,000 would be enough for the project, which even I thought to be airheaded - even allowing for better economic times (1982) and never having contemplated anything of that sort myself. (The research boat alone would eat that up.) It had to be more than trying, admittedly, for Mr Clifford to go before board after board arguing his case and having to constantly deal with the road blocks bureaucracy routinely sets up, but his tone began to be a little unbearable as well. Barry Clifford believes wholeheartedly in Barry Clifford. This is a good thing, when it comes to pursuing a dream to reality, but along the way it's bound to gain a host of detractors. He spends a little too much time insisting on the virtues of private archeology - some of which I do subscribe to - and a little too much time name-dropping (JFK Jr, Walter Cronkite, Prince Andrew,William Styron, etc). It is true that most of those people lived on Martha's Vineyard at the time (few others can afford to now)and were neighbours of Clifford's, but it sounded way too sensationalist to me.
Taking the book on its merits, however, Mr Clifford has done an admirable job of outlining the careers of several of the most notorious pirates of the Whydah era. The drawings of the various artifacts brought up from the dig are meticulous and painstaking, right down to the insignia on the everyday dinnerware like spoons, forks, and plates. Everything appears to have been accorded the same degree of respect, right down to carpet tacks; and in his new facility at Provincetown, which houses his finds, he is apparently following all proper procedures of conservation. For that he is to be commended.
This was a fast read (finished it in two days, and I am a leisurely reader) and, aside from my minor quibbles with the writing and a bit of the content (presents his case well, but needs a better co-writer to trim away the fat)I got out of it exactly what I purchased it for - information on the Whydah, which has worked my imagination for years also; entertaining sidebars; and a glimpse into history from someone intimately involved in the process. Worth a read.
Engrossing! Piratical!.......2003-08-05
Like pirates? Like pirate history? Run right out and buy this book ASAP! I *loved* this book, and read it straight through in two sittings. It follows the trials of Barry Clifford in his decades long search for the Whydah Galley shipwreck off the coast of his Cape Cod home, and final outstanding success in his quest. The book offers *so* much engrossing information about both modern privately-funded marine archaeology (sometimes dismissively referred to as "treasure hunting" by academics) and the life of Black Sam Bellamy, Captain of the Whydah. The book is peppered with maps, photographs from the search and excavation, and careful line-drawings of the artifacts exhumed with accompanying descriptive text.
This is not to say the book is without fault. At times it is painfully obvious that Clifford's skills lie in other realms than the writing world and the guiding hand of co-writer Perry is either absent or inebriated--at times the prose can be a bit amateur and elementary. I question the quality of editing that went into the work as well, since in places a topic will be "introduced" as if it were new to the reader, when in fact it had already been mentioned in an earlier chapter. And, Clifford's private-archaeology cheerleading can at times seem a bit shrill in his repeated justifications of his work in the face of extreme criticism by the academic realm [1]. And,... the book is a bit dated in its claims of "the only pirate ship ever recovered", since the discoveries (largely by teams led by Clifford) of a number of other pirate shipwrecks have happened since its publication.
Despite these flaws, the book remains an engrossing read. Clifford and Perry have imbued the text with Clifford's infectious enthusiasm and passion for the life of Bellamy and the search for the Whydah. The story of the search, discovery, and excavation of the wreckage (as well as the financial and legal woes that plagued them from the beginning) is interwoven with legends and factual details about Bellamy and the Whydah crew from the exhaustive research of the Whydah team's staff historian. The book offers an interesting interpretation of the pirate crews of the era as renegade democracies, pioneering a 'rule by the people' culture in revolutionary dispute of crown rule several decades before the American Revolution (at times this verges on a sort of fannish apologist tone, which didn't bother me too much as a reader, being a fannish pirate-apologist at times myself). The book becomes a bit sensationalist toward the end when it delves into a few 'pirate ghost' encounters that Clifford and his crew experienced, but by that point I believe his dedication in relating the story and I think his dedication to the importance of legend and myth as being as integral a part of the appeal of the golden age of piracy as the cold-facts history, that it doesn't come off as corny or insincere.
Treasure Hunter.......2002-11-23
Barry Clifford discovered the only wrecked pirate ship ever found, then recovered much of the gold, jewels, and silver aboard the vessel as well as important historical artifacts. As a small boy, Clifford had listened to tales of the pirate ship WHYDAH and its master Black Sam Bellamy told to him by his uncle. Although he grew into adulthood and became a successful marine salvager, thoughts of the WHYDAH and her ill-fated crew, as well as all the treasure rumored to have gone down aboard her, wouldn't leave Clifford's mind at rest. For years he assembled information and research regarding the ship's activities, the sailors and captain aboard her, and the loot WHYDAH had seized. Gradually, as he exhausted all the knowledge that was to be gleaned from histories, journals, and survey maps, Clifford eliminated conflicting data and re-interpreted facts and figures until he was certain he knew where the ship had gone down, taking the captain and most of the crew with her. Armed with his facts and figures, Clifford journeyed to Denver and sold shares in the venture to raise a quarter million dollars investment capital to start searching for the wreck. Within months, he had located the first of the treasure, and the real fighting began with the state agency that tried to take a lion's share of the recovered assets.
Barry Clifford was a marine salvager by trade and became an expert in piracy by interest. In addition to two non-fiction novels, EXPEDITION WHYDAH and THE LOST FLEET: THE DISCOVERY OF A SUNKEN ARMADA FROM THE GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY, Clifford also established the Whydah Learning Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He's gleaned a lot of support from historical preservation societies and boards.
Although Clifford's narration of his own book in audio form comes across as less polished than probably could have been done by a professional voice, the dramatic tension involved in the story keeps the listener intent on the tale. In fact, the laconic, laidback way Clifford narrates his story sounds like a guy sitting across the table spinning his story over a cup of coffee. The choice Clifford made to overlap his own findings with the history of the pirates aboard WHYDAH drives the dramatic tension of both stories. Separating those events by putting them in different sections of the book would have diluted both, and made them too episodic. Clifford was making history as he was uncovering it. Even in the abridged form offered in the audiobook, Clifford conveys tons of material relating to the work involved in claiming, finding, and bringing up a significant historical find-especially one laden with gold, silver, and jewels. The history of piracy and the pirates on board WHYDAH when it went down are spooned into the narrative in just the right amounts to keep revealing new details while still leaving the listener for more.
EXPEDITION WHYDAH is an excellent audiobook to listen to in the car. The bits and pieces that are presented episodically lend themselves to the start and stop of a workday drive. In addition, Clifford's details on the expedition and piracy in general bring a lot of intensity to armchair explorers.
A Good Summer Reading Book.......2001-06-26
Clifford's book is great reading for the beach or wherever you might be. A fantastic adventure book that tells the story of Barry Clifford's discovery and excavation of the Whydah off the coast of Welfleet, MA(Cape Cod). A story of pirates, treasure, and Cape Cod that will remain in your mind for days after you have read it.
Book Description
New in the Peace Hill Press series on neglected historical figures.
Discover the intriguing story of Amerigo Vespucci in this entry in the innovative junior-level biography series. Vespucci's accomplishments included discovering new lands for Spain and Portugal, but they are often eclipsed by those of his famous contemporary Christopher Columbus. Delightful and ingenious illustrations by Jed Mickle help complement the narrative.
Average customer rating:
- Truth is more amazing than fiction
- A stroll in the woods
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Ancient Mariner: The Arctic Adventures of Samuel Hearne, the Sailor Who Inspired Coleridge's Masterpiece
Ken McGoogan
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf
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ASIN: 0786713046 |
Book Description
Though immortalized by Samuel Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” few people know that eighteenth-century British adventurer Samuel Hearne became the first European to see the Arctic Ocean while standing on America’s northernmost shore. In Ancient Mariner, McGoogan demonstrates that Hearne was far more complex, accomplished, and influential than history has shown. A Royal Navy midshipman during the Seven Years’ War, Hearne moved to London, and in 1766, just twenty-one, joined the Hudson’s Bay Company. He embarked on an overland quest for rich veins of copper supposedly located “far to the northward where the sun don’t set”—and also to discover the Northwest Passage. Hearne’s posthumously published journal, the first book by a European explorer on the Arctic, describes a journey of 3,500 miles marked by hardship, and mitigated only by his friendship with the legendary Dene leader Matonabbee. His epic adventure culminated in the infamous and still-controversial massacre at “Bloody Falls”—a murderous battle between two native tribes that changed him forever. In a fascinating example of literary detective work, McGoogan determines that, having returned to London to live out his final days, Hearne met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, inspiring the poet to write “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
Customer Reviews:
Truth is more amazing than fiction.......2004-11-29
This book by Ken McGoogan recalls Peter C. Newman's fascinating books about the Hudson's Bay Company: Caesars of the Wilderness and The Company Adventurers. I think that schoolchildren should be reading these books rather than dry old history tomes. And, if all you have read are these history textbooks, then I suggest you give yourself a chance to revisit these amazing explorers. The story of Samuel Hearne is magnificently told by Ken McGoogan and it will have you thirsting for more stories of the amazing men and women (yes, women!) who lived, fought, loved in a cruel land. It was a book I could not put down.
A stroll in the woods.......2004-05-20
Exploration stories often focus on the tropics. David Livingstone, Albert Russel Wallace, Richard Burton and others are readily recalled. The polar quests of Amundsen, Cook, Peary and Byrd probably follow in popularity. The upper latitudes seem almost overlooked. With little land mass approaching Antarctica and its pole, Canada and Russia are left for investigation by the enquiring mind. Having offered the life of one such wanderer in John Rae, McGoogan now reaches further back in time and place to reveal the life of Samuel Hearne. It's a fine study of a dedicated man.
McGoogan's lively narrative traces Hearne's Royal Navy career, then follows him to the Hudson's Bay Company [HBC] station of Prince of Wales Fort. With the Canadian Arctic still a terra incognita, various quests were under consideration - the Northwest Passage and/or an inland sea leading to Asia being prime contenders. A more specific ambition arose with indications of a vast copper resource near the Arctic Sea. Hearne pursued this rumour by trekking across the Canadian tundra to find it. Various interludes occurred along the way.
Hearne's expeditions to the Arctic seem pre-ordained to failure. Having but a hazy notion of what confronted him wasn't a hindrance. Bureaucracy proved the more serious impediment. The British attitude toward indigenous peoples compounded faulty notions of requirements for such a trip. With no idea of how Native Peoples? societies were structured, British HBC agents blundered into one crisis after another. In today's world, for a man to suggest that women must accompany the expedition to perform specialised tasks would bring down the wrath of the Human Rights Commission. In the 18th Century rise of the HBC in Canada women performed essential roles. No Native Peoples? women meant no Native Peoples? men. No men, no expedition. McGoogan explains all these circumstances without apology or condemnation. It's a professional historian's approach, worthy of full praise.
The other aspect of British imperialism's shortsighted view is the relationships among Canada's Native Peoples. Hearne and others would counsel peace to those who had been warring when the British still painted themselves blue. These animosities were not easily quelled and might break out without warning nor discernible reason. Hearne was confronted with this near the mouth of the Coppermine River. McGoogan, relying on Hearne's own account, describes the massacre of an Inuit settlement leading to the naming of "Bloody Falls". The event remained fixed in Hearne's memory for the remainder of his life.
Hearne, seeking an ephemeral copper lode, traversed immense stretches of the Canadian North. With various teams, but particularly relying on a Dene negotiator, Matonabbee, Hearne viewed the Arctic Ocean, the first European to reach it overland. The copper wasn't there, nor, in Hearne's opinion, was there any possibility of a Northwest Passage. He saw the Great Slave Lake, but when he later reported on his journey, skeptics were confounded by how far west it lay. Canada's vastness overwhelmed chair-bounded geographers. Hearne wasn't simply seeking mineral wealth. He recorded copious observations on plant and animal life in the region, as well as collecting information on the native peoples. More than just an adventurer, Hearne is credited by McGoogan as being one of earliest naturalists.
Hearne's return to England was less than satisfactory. An account of his travels netted him not a penny - he died before publication. One event, a likely meeting with Coleridge at a boy's school, may have led Hearne to become the source of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. While the notion is McGoogan's speculative idea, it's plausible enough to be valid. It certainly provided a good, if unexpected, title for the life of an Arctic explorer. McGoogan presents that life vividly, with only minor, forgiveable, embellishments. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Book Description
Evolution's Captain is the story of a visionary but now forgotten English naval officer but for whom the "Darwinian Revolution" would never have occurred. When Captain Robert FitzRoy, the twenty-six-year-old captain of the H.M.S. Beagle, set out for Tierra del Fuego in the fall of 1831, he invited a young naturalist to accompany him. That twenty-two-year-old gentleman was Charles Darwin, and perhaps no single voyage in history had a greater impact on how we would come to understand the world -- in both religious and scientific terms.
When the Beagle's first captain committed suicide while at sea in 1828, he was replaced by a young naval officer of a new mold. Robert FitzRoy was the most brilliant and scientific sea captain of his age. He used the Beagle, a survey vessel, as a laboratory for the new field of the natural sciences. But his plan to bring four "savages" home to England to civilize them as Christian gentlefolk backfired when scandal loomed over their sexual misbehavior at the Walthamstow Infants School. FitzRoy needed to get them out of England fast, and thus was born the second and most famous voyage of the Beagle.
FitzRoy feared the loneliness of another long voyage -- with madness in his own family, he was haunted by the fate of the Beagle's previous captain -- so for company he took with him the young amateur naturalist Charles Darwin. Like FitzRoy, Darwin believed, at the beginning of the voyage, in the absolute word of the Bible and the story of man's creation. The two men spent five years circling the globe together, but by the end of their voyage they had reached startlingly different conclusions about the origins of the natural world.
In naval terms, the voyage was a stunning scientific success. But FitzRoy, a fanatical Christian, was horrified by the heretical theories Darwin began to develop. As these began to influence the profoundest levels of religious and scientific thinking in the nineteenth century, FitzRoy's knowledge that he had provided Darwin with the vehicle for his sacrilegious ideas propelled him down an irrevocable path to suicide.
This true story -- part biography, part sea drama, and a subtle study of one of the defining moments in the history of science -- reads like the finest historical fiction. It is a chronicle of the remarkable chain of events without which Darwin would most likely have lived and died an obscure English country parson with a fondness for collecting beetles.
Customer Reviews:
The lives of Robert FitzRoy.......2007-04-01
Robert FitzRoy was a brilliant, fascinating and complex man. While this book focusses primarily on his role as the Captain of 'HMS Beagle' during two voyages (the second included Charles Darwin), it includes other aspects of his career and life.
Mr Nichols presents the facts - especially those related to the voyages of HMS Beagle - well. While acknowledging the later differences between Darwin and FitzRoy, the facts are presented impartially. In summary, we owe a great deal to the collaboration between Darwin and FitzRoy. The fact that their complementary skills and intellects were only combined through a form of coincidental opportunities is the purest serendipity.
Highly recommended to those who would like to know more about the events and circumstances behind Darwin's voyage on HMS Beagle as well as the voyage itself.
I am currently reading as much as I can about Robert FitzRoy, and can recommend the following two books as well:
This is a novel about Robert Fitzroy:
This Thing of Darkness
This is a biography of the HMS Beagle herself:
HMS "Beagle" (Voyages S.)
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
A stormy life.......2007-03-04
Britain's Royal Navy has had many figures worthy of note. Some of these have inspired good works of history, while others prompted novelists to produce stirring tales of more or less believable adventures. Captain William Bligh almost immediately comes to mind, as does Patrick O'Brian's lengthy series on Jack Aubrey. One real figure, who should stand out for many accomplishments, has been quietly relegated to the shadows - if not scorned for holding rigid views. Robert FitzRoy, however, was a man of many parts who deserves better treatment. Peter Nichols provides that assessment in this fine biography. The title, however, gives the game away. FitzRoy's name was overshadowed by the passenger he carried for five years, Charles Robert Darwin.
FitzRoy's ascent to the captaincy of HMS Beagle seemed ill-omened. His predecessor, Stokes Pringle, overwhelmed by the enormity of his assignment, put a bullet in his head, taking a dozen days to expire. The task, mapping a channel through Tierra del Fuego in an effort to smooth the path of empire, was taxing enough to make the bravest quail. The 500 kilometre strait might require sailing five times that distance to traverse it - if you made it at all. FitzRoy, although unaccountably young for the mapping job, took it over and pursued it with determination. During the survey, a whaleboat stolen by the Fuegians proved a pivotal point in his life. In attempting to recover the boat, FitzRoy abducted four of the natives, returning them to England as a means of raising them to become civilised Christians. Nichols seems sympathetic to this concept, even while knowing it was doomed to failure.
The world knows the subsequent events: while preparing for the next voyage, FitzRoy brought on board a "companion", Charles Darwin. Not Navy, and not the official "naturalist", Darwin was a gentlemen who could converse with the isolated officer. As a "gentleman", Darwin had less regard for the Fuegians than did FitzRoy, yet condemned slavery while the captain viewed the practice as a civilising force. This discussion was set aside when the pair observed the obvious effects of running water far from the sea. A Noachean Flood, or an ancient Earth? There were clashes and apologies, FitzRoy driving Darwin from his cabin, only to lure him back. The captain's moods were an on-going topic of the ship's officers. The dismal end of his predecessor also may have preyed on FitzRoy's mind when the Beagle beat up the Chilean coast. He believed the mapping inadequate and wanted to return to the Strait for more surveys. Distraught, he actually resigned his command, but was talked out of it by his officers.
At the end of the survey voyage, FitzRoy went through several roles. Unable to gain a ship, he was a Member of Parliament briefly and was sent to New Zealand as its governor. Empire building is fraught with risks and Nichols is only mildly sympathetic with FitzRoy's disastrous role there. The new governor was shipped home after but two years. Back in England, FitzRoy's command skills brought him to a novel task - weather forecasting. The science was just beginning and FitzRoy initiated a reporting and prediction system across the British Isles. At the height of his success at this venture, the Admiralty shut it down, even in the face of the fishing fleet's demands to sustain it. A see-saw career if there ever was one.
The final chapter of the Captain's life [by which time he was a Rear Admiral] was one of fundamental challenges. Already a religious man, FitzRoy became steeped in the Bible's words, becoming convinced it would brook no challenges. Changes observed in the natural record were manifestations of the divine, FitzRoy believed. His notions were reinforced by various commentators like Philip Gosse, who viewed the growing sciences of geology and biology with fear and loathing. In 1859, however, all those declaring Nature could be unravelled by Biblical study were directly refuted by the publication of Darwin's opus, "On the Origin of Species". Reason and evidence triumphed over superstition and dogma. FitzRoy was outraged, and expressed it at the famous British Association meeting the following year.
It's not known how much this revelation led to FitzRoy's taking his own life, but it can hardly have been insignificant. Nichols concludes that Darwin's work was but one symbol of a rapidly changing time. The author examines British society at this point in FitzRoy's with a perceptive eye. Civilisation was moving forward and the author concludes FitzRoy felt left behind. The fear of social upheaval was already being overtaken by events - Darwin's natural selection had little, if anything, to do with it, notes Nichols. It's a worthy thesis, lacking only a more thorough analysis of its roots. We never learn of the early foundations of the captain's thinking. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Evolution's Captain.......2006-03-08
This was bought as a gift and I only leafed through it ... The recipient was delighted and I intend to borrow the book as soon as possible. Very interesting !!
Fundamentalism cuts deep for FitzRoy.......2006-02-14
Nichols focus our attention on the question if Captain FitzRoy was destroyed by the thought he took Darwin on his voyage of discovery. The issue that highlights Nichols excellent book is apparently still alive today. When one touches the third rail of Fundamentalism it cuts deep for some true believers. For example, just yesterday the L A times published an article about a minister teaching elementary age children how to argue against science and the theory of evolution. He instructed them that if in a class room a teacher mentions the word "evolution, or big bang" the children were to raise their hands and ask, how do you know, where you there? And then to tell their teacher only one was there, GOD. And GOD wrote the truth of it in the bible. Imagine this still being up for debate, happening in a country that realizes it has a shortage of scientists. Some polls say 50% of Americans still believe in Creationism. You might ask, how does this relate to Mr. Nichols excellent biography of Captain Robert FitzRoy, the Captain of the H.M.S. Beagle which took Charles Darwin on his voyage to question the common notion that we are being asked today to swallow as "intelligent design"? Well FitzRoy and most of Victorian England's thinking in the mid 1800s was unquestioning in its support of Creationism, even Darwin started from this premise. So as a backdrop to an excellent story of exploration you have a book that provides an entry level introduction to the very beginnings of a new understanding. As Nichols puts it , " How wide was the gulf between Darwin and FitzRoy. Darwin stood at the threshold of an expansion of thought and science that would not be equaled for a hundred years.... Fitzroy in his way was no less a scientist... was stuck, deeply by prejudice and the cleaving to an old order, to a mindset a thousand and more years old, when science was subservient to religion. That order was about to be toppled, and the constructs of the Bible smashed like an old wooden bridge, weakened by rot, before the torrent of a spring flood." You get the idea, and this quote does show Nichols gets carried away with enthusiastic language which I found part of the enjoyment of reading the book. This book would be interesting if only for the story of how FitzRoy kidnapped three natives from Tierra del Fuego, brought them to England, educated them to be Christians and then returned them to their "savage" cousins. Their story is part of FitzRoy's story too. I recommend the book strongly for its ideas and wonderful adventure story.
Near miss.......2005-08-08
This generally sympathetic account of Robert FitzRoy and his role as the captain of the HMS Beagle during Darwin's famous voyage is a good summer read. But anyone familiar with manic-depressive illness can't avoid the conclusion that Nichols misses a key aspect of FitzRoy's persona: he had bipolar disorder! It is remarkable how Nichols could so carefully document the elements of this illness in his biography of FitzRoy and yet not get it. As Nichols reports, FitzRoy had a family history of suicide, episodes of ill-considered spending (e.g., he purchased 2 ships with a crew on the vague hope that the Admirality would reimburse him), followed by severe depression (during the voyage of the Beagle, when FitzRoy gave up his command during an attack of depression, Darwin himself wondered whether there was something wrong with FitzRoy's brain). Add to this the episodic, lifelong course, ending -- in this sad case as in about 15% people with the illness even today -- in suicide. Nichols would have us believe that FitzRoy slit his throat with his wife and children nearby because of his disagreements with Darwin, capped by an unfavorable notice in The Times. It is clear instead that FitzRoy had a mental illness that had barely been described in the year he died of it, but which even now continues to go undiagnosed and untreated. Nichols would have served his readers -- and FitzRoy's memory -- better if he had recognized what should have been plain and considered this in his account of FitzRoy's often erratic behavior. Nevertheless, the book should be read by anyone interested in the early days of the Theory of Natural Selection.
Book Description
Around 330 B.C., a remarkable man named Pytheas set out from the Greek colony of Massalia (now Marseille) to explore the fabled, terrifying lands of northern Europe—a mysterious, largely conjectural zone that, according to Greek science, was too cold to sustain human life and yet was somehow, they knew, the source of precious commodities such as tin, amber, and gold.
Whether Pytheas headed an expedition or traveled alone, he was the first literate man to visit the British Isles and the coasts of France and Denmark, and there is convincing evidence that he traveled on to Iceland and the edge of the ice-pack—an astonishing voyage at the time. Pytheas’s own account of the journey, titled On the Ocean and published in about 320 B.C., has not survived, though it echoes in the works of ancient historians like Herodotus and Strabo. Their allusions to his voyage represent the beginnings of European history and underscore how much of a pioneer Pytheas was, for Britain remained without further explorers until Julius Caesar and his legions landed there almost 300 years later.
Archaeologist Barry Cunliffe knows perhaps more than anyone about the world through which Pytheas traveled, and he has sifted the archaeological and written records to re-create this staggering journey. Beginning with an invaluable pocket history of early Mediterranean civilization, Cunliffe illuminates what Pytheas would have seen and experienced—the route he likely took to reach first Brittany and then England; the tin-mining and, even then, evidence of ancient cultures he would have witnessed onshore; the challenge of sailing in a skin boat; the magic of amber and the trade routes by which it reached the Mediterranean. In telling this story, Cunliffe has chronicled an essential chapter in the history of civilization.
Customer Reviews:
a very dry piece about ancient seafaring.......2005-01-04
I couldn't help feeling, as the book progressed, that Barry Cunliffe was filling-out, what little is known about Pytheas, with anything that would fill the space. "...and if Pytheas had landed at this spot he may have been impressed by the view, and might have taken tea and scones at the local tea-shop (if one were nearby, and had he arrived a couple of millenia later)This is the kind of stuff that, although he didn't write these exact words, he may as well have. A long digression would then follow on some local custom or trade (sometimes pre-dating Pytheas by centuries).
The worst thing about this book was that a modern author could give such a dry account that, I am certain, would have been far more enjoyable in Pytheas' own words, as all the translations of the ancients I have ever read flow more easily (including Thucydides).
Fun, but a bit loose on the history........2004-09-12
Anyone interested in archaeology would enjoy this book because it ties the more well known classical greco-roman world with its "barbarian" neighbors. Though people may read the title expecting to find some sort of firsthand account that would be to miss the point. What you get is a colorful interpretation (sometimes based on archaeological finds) of the life of ancient Celts and Britons and the ways in which their trade with the Mediterranean may have functioned.
However, towards the end of the book the reader might start to notice that Professor Cunliffe's understanding of Roman history in particular is a bit loose. He has Pompey outliving his own murder by a year and engaging Caesar in the Alexandrian interlude to the Civil War. Later, he makes the same mistake again and further errs that Pompey was occupying the Palace in Alexandria against the siege of Caesar (in reality it was Caesar who was besieged by the Egyptian general Achillas). Anyone interested in the more accurate firsthand version ought to give Caesar's own words a chance in his "Civil War."
The above was not meant to be pedantic. It was simply to point out that if the author doesn't possess an understanding of some of the sources he so often quotes, then the rest of his arguments pertaining to the sources that quote Pytheas seem a little less stable. Still, this book is sure to spark the reader to learn more about ancient history!
The Discovery of Britain.......2004-06-13
Native Americans and Pacific Islanders who get annoyed by stories of their countries being "discovered" might feel vindicated by this account of the first civilized explorer of the British Isles, where he encountered cannibals who "openly have intercourse not only with other women but with their mothers and sisters"which Cunliffe thinks may be "accurate anthropological observation."
No full copy of Pytheas's book survives so his voyage has to be reconstructed from quotations in other writers. These seem consistent enough and to contain enough valid observations about tides and sun movements to indicate that there was some truth in his story. The material is so sparse that in order to fill his book Cunliffe fleshes it out with a lot of speculation and archeological data. He is evidently an authority in many fields. For example he is able to detect that Polybius's attack on Pytheas "has all the hallmarks of intense academic jealousy." (Cunfiffe is a professor of European archeology at Oxford). An interesting speculation is whether Pytheas reached Iceland. Cunliffe thinks he did, and presents interesting evidence. It does appear likely that Iceland was inhabited before the Vikings got there.
Ordinary Voyage.......2004-05-21
With a title like THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE OF PYTHEAS THE GREEK, I was expecting an interesting, readable account. Instead, I got convoluted bits and pieces of info. Not a whole lot of it had to do with Pytheas.
I won't even go into the historical relevance of this book, because frankly I didn't pay a lot of attention to it. As an ancient history grad student & writer myself, I really wish that historians paid more attention to writing well.
Travels of an ancient mariner.......2003-11-18
The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek is a wonderful examination of life along the Atlantic seaboard of Europe during the Greco-Roman period. Essentially it's a much more readable version of Cunliffe's book Facing the Ocean, and the reader of the latter will find familiar passages throughout the volume. While the focus and time period of Facing the Ocean is much broader than that of The ExtraordinaryVoyage, the narrower time period of the latter makes the ancient world come more alive for the reader.
On the Ocean, written by the fourth century B.C. explorer Pytheas of Massalia (modern day Marseille in France) is itself lost to modern day scholarship, but it does exist in short excerpts found in the works of later authors. Professor Cunliffe is both an archaeologist as well as an historian of the period and is able to use his understanding of the cultural remains of the period and of the region in which Pytheas traveled to verify many of the traditions surrounding the great adventurer's voyage. In essence, he uses both Pytheas and his travels to create the structure and theme of his own work on life and trade along the Atlantic coasts during the fourth century.
For those with a general knowledge of Greco-Roman history, this book adds detail to the image of the ancient world. Many of the more general texts of the period, while discussing the colonization period of ancient Greece, fail to really give more than a gloss-over of the cultural phenomenon that restructured the Mediterranean world and led to the more widely known events of the Roman Republic and Imperial periods, with its cast of characters made popular in literary form from Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra and Julius Caesar to Ridley Scott's Gladiator. The book takes the reader to the ends of the earth from the point of view of the contemporary Mediterranean world and provides a personality whose adventures match those of the great explorers of the fourteenth and fifteenth century A.D.
The book is brief and concise, and would be understandable to most readers from junior high level and beyond with an interest in history. The bibliography contains a number of references that would provide further reading sources. Most of these are a little old, 1893-1994, and some are in French or German, but several of the general sources are more recent and in English.
Book Description
In 1507, European cartographers were struggling to redraw their maps of the world and to name the newly found lands of the Western Hemisphere. The name they settled on: America, after Amerigo Vespucci, an obscure Florentine explorer.
In Amerigo, the award-winning scholar Felipe Fernández-Armesto answers the question “What’s in a name?” by delivering a rousing flesh-and-blood narrative of the life and times of Amerigo Vespucci. Here we meet Amerigo as he really was: a sometime slaver and small-time jewel trader; a contemporary, confidant, and rival of Columbus; an amateur sorcerer who attained fame and honor by dint of a series of disastrous failures and equally grand self-reinventions. Filled with well-informed insights and amazing anecdotes, this magisterial and compulsively readable account sweeps readers from Medicean Florence to the Sevillian court of Ferdinand and Isabella, then across the Atlantic of Columbus to the brave New World where fortune favored the bold.
Amerigo Vespucci emerges from these pages as an irresistible avatar for the age of exploration–and as a man of genuine achievement as a voyager and chronicler of discovery. A product of the Florentine Renaissance, Amerigo in many ways was like his native Florence at the turn of the sixteenth century: fast-paced, flashy, competitive, acquisitive, and violent. His ability to sell himself–evident now, 500 years later, as an entire hemisphere that he did not “discover” bears his name–was legendary. But as Fernández-Armesto ably demonstrates, there was indeed some fire to go with all the smoke: In addition to being a relentless salesman and possibly a ruthless appropriator of other people’s efforts, Amerigo was foremost a person of unique abilities, courage, and cunning. And now, in Amerigo, this mercurial and elusive figure finally has a biography to do full justice to both the man and his remarkable era.
“A dazzling new biography . . . an elegant tale.”
–Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“An outstanding historian of Atlantic exploration, Fernández-Armesto delves into the oddities of cultural transmission that attached the name America to the continents discovered in the 1490s. Most know that it honors Amerigo Vespucci, whom the author introduces as an amazing Renaissance character independent of his name’s fame–and does Fernández-Armesto ever deliver.”
–Booklist (starred review)
Customer Reviews:
A long overdue biography.......2007-10-06
Felipe has done an excellent job of writing a concise and beautifully articulate account on Amerigo, the man who gave his name to America. However, I think the subtitle should perhaps be- The man who finagled getting his name stamped upon America.
This biography offers a wealth of information about Renaissance Florence, Seville and the famous characters of history that many know; yet, few seldom realize how much they overlapped each other. Due to a limited amount of factual documentation on Amerigo, Felipe needed to fill a book with additional facts, yet it was not done to simply fill out a volume, but rather to fill out the times, the mindset, and the world of Amerigo and his famous contemporaries. This includes Columbus, the Medici family, Toscanelli, Ferdinand and Isabella, as well as important men like Gianotto Berardi, the banker who along invested his life and financial resources for Columbus, but met financial disaster instead.
Amerigo happened to work for Berardi, and after this financial debacle, he was forced to make an occupational shift in direction. That journey took him westward, in the footsteps of Columbus and eventually led to worldwide fame, as his name supplanted the New World's rightful hero to indelibly mark two huge continents.
We as Americans shall always ponder our nation blaringly sounding the name of the Italian adventurer Amerigo Vespucci, while lamenting that it should have been Columbus or Columbia or something similar. More astounding still is how Ferdinand and other monarchs were incapable of silencing Amerigo, or any other claimant from attaining such a colossal honor. The chain-reaction of publishers jumping on the profitable bandwagon all contributed to the most colossal domino effect in mapmaking history, one so strong that even kings could not prevent. The name America would prevail for eternity.
The only disappointment was the very last pages where the author expressed some personal opinions about Western Civilization. He criticizes the Mediterranean Europeans as being lazy dregs that inherited much of everything from Asian influence, including the desire to explore. This is not only ludicrous, for it negates thousands of brilliant men that shaped our advanced civilization, which no Asian entity ever compared to, while the desire of Europeans to explore was limited due to the immense variety of peoples within the Mediterranean sphere. The Mediterranean coastal nations were a mixture of various Caucasians, from Portugal to Germany to Norway to Italy, along with a variety of North Africans, Arabs and Asians. This volatile area boomed in advances thus negating the need to go anywhere else. However, once the Muslims sacked Constantinople that need to trade with Asia prompted the desire to find another route, hence the age of exploration.
That aside, overall, "Amerigo" is a very worthy read.
Great.......2007-09-20
The author was very knowledgable with Amerigo, the political climate, the rulers of the time-author went into great deal what was happening during Amerigo's life, his family, friendships -he used texts that have been preserved from that time and wrote a great book.
The Famous Name Is That of a Bustling Trickster.......2007-08-12
We just passed the 500th anniversary of a remarkable event: America was named America in April 1507. If the excitement of discovery around that time would have allowed Europeans to be fair and rational, we would be the United States of Columbia, perhaps, part of North Columbia with South Columbia below us on the maps. We have a Columbus Day as an annual holiday, but the tribute we give to Columbus's fellow sailor and explorer is the name America, while most people have little knowledge of who Amerigo Vespucci was. In _Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America_ (Random House) by Felipe Fernández-Armesto, readers will understand how the name came to be, unfairly or not. In some ways, the name fits our nation pretty well; Amerigo was a trader and he had a talent for bustle and self-promotion, and for remaking himself when previous ventures failed. In other ways, we might not be so proud. Fernández-Armesto starts his entertaining book: "Amerigo Vespucci, who gave his name to America, was a pimp in his youth and a magus in maturity." Vespucci's life story is often a murky one, with voids that Fernández-Armesto points out, and it is made more difficult because Vespucci is part of the legends surrounding the European discovery of the New World, and there are still even those who insist that he, rather than Columbus, was the real discoverer.
Born in 1454, Vespucci grew up in Florence. As a young man, He took on clients and bought and sold gems, wine, debts, or sexual favors for them. He traveled to Seville to work for a firm that had the contract on supplies for Columbus's voyages. Vespucci, for whom the expeditions of others had not brought riches, joined an expedition himself in 1499, and he wrote about the voyage afterward as if he had been in command of the fleet which made it. He adopted a new persona as navigator, and he learned enough about handling the astrolabes and primitive, clumsy quadrants that he impressed those who watched him. It was almost all bogus, but he talked and acted with authority, and became an authority, the most trusted star-gazer in Europe. He published a bestseller about his travels, a book that inspired another in 1505, the _Soderini Letter_. This one, however, was a genuine fake, borrowing from other accounts. It purported to be by Vespucci and claimed that he was the true discoverer of the New World. It was the fake that was to make America's name. Ptolemy's _Geographia_ was still celebrated as a navigational standard, and in the town of St. Dié, between France and Germany, a new edition was being prepared. It was set to include updates from the new explorations when the geographers doing the updating received the _Soderini Letter_ and incorporated its "data" into the new work. Included was a huge world map, and since the Letter had claimed the true discovery of the New World should be credited to Vespucci, the area that we now know as Brazil was emblazoned with a version of Vespucci's first name.
Thus America was named to honor the author of the _Soderini Letter_, only Amerigo didn't write it, for his discovery of the New World, only Amerigo didn't discover it. The geographers in charge of the Ptolemy update and the huge map soon realized that they had been mistaken, but by then their work, too, had become a bestseller. The name stuck, and was reinforced when Mercator subsequently used it on both the northern as well as the southern part of the New World. Amerigo Vespucci, who didn't live to see how the name prospered, would not have minded at all. "By leaving his mark on the map," Fernández-Armesto writes, "Amerigo, the old magus, is still working his magic."
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Christopher Columbus (People Who Shape Our World)
Margaret Holland
Manufacturer: Willowisp Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
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| Children's Books
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General
| United States
| History & Historical Fiction
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General
| Ages 9-12
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Columbus, Christopher
| ( C )
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ASIN: 0874065844 |
Book Description
This book relates the experiences of the Italian explorer credited with discovering America in 1492.
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Recommended Books
- Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon
- History: Fiction or Science
- Waterfront Homes: 200 Plans for River, Lake or Sea
- Appleton & Lange's Review for the USMLE Step 3
- Civilization and Its Discontents
- For One More Day
- Death of a Dentist
- Villa Decor: Decidedly French and Italian Style
- A Victorian Housebuilder's Guide: Woodward's National Architect of 1869
- Mosses: Utah and the West
They Went Whistling: Women Wayfarers, Warriors, Runaways, and Renegades
No Place for a Lady: Tales of Adventurous Women Travelers
Unsuitable for Ladies: An Anthology of Women Travellers
Travels in West Africa (NG Adventure Classics)
A Voyager Out: The Life of Mary Kingsley
