The History Book Club discussion

This is a thread to discuss books about the history of exploration and the history of those explorers who went on all of those wonderful and sometimes dangerous trips of adventure and discovery.

OK, another great thread! One of my all time favourite adventure and exploration books has to be: "Captain Scott" by Ranulph Fiennes

by Ranulph Fiennes
Reviews:
"No-one is better placed than Fiennes to understand what Scott may have experienced or to appreciate the enormity of his achievement. A gripping tale of courage and adventure." - Daily Mail

"A valuable corrective to the trend of Scott debunking ushered in by Roland Huntford...One by one, and with commendable attention to detail, Fiennes explodes the accumulated myths. The world will remember Scott and, to a lesser extent, Fiennes when the memory of the mean-spirited and misleading Huntford has long since melted away." - Justin Marozzi, (Sunday Telegraph)

"Sir Ranulph Fiennes has done Captain Scott's memory some service...he has certainly written a more dispassionate and balanced account than Huntford ever set out to do." - Simon Courtauld, (Spectator)

"He is uniquely qualified...because only someone who has "man-hauled" across Antarctica can know what went on. Fiennes's own experiences certainly allow him to write vividly and with empathy of the hell that the men went through. He has valuable insights into the running of the Royal Geographical Society and the mounting of an expedition, and he does indeed right some wrongs." - The Sunday Times

Another very good book that I really enjoyed was; "The Coldest March" by Susan Solomon.


by Susan Solomon
Reviews:
"Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale." - R. Scott, written after travelling for weeks of daily temperatures below minus 35 degrees F.

"This is a very well balanced and meticulously researched book. It shows beyond doubt how false and shallow have been the many malicious and blinkered books and films in their bland condemnation of Captain Scott as a bumbler and inept leader. Quite the opposite was actually true and The Coldest March goes a long way to putting polar history right and thereby to killing off the vicious myth about one of Britain's great explorers." - Sir Ranulph Fiennes

"A fresh and captivating look at one of the most tragic sagas in the annals of exploration. Solomon takes the reader on a breathtaking ride through Antarctica's beauty, history, and uniquely forbidding weather. Carefully researched, innovative, and elegantly written, The Coldest March will fascinate and inform anyone intrigued by polar adventure or the interplay of science and society." - Paul Ehrlich, (author of Human Natures and Wild Solutions)

"An inspiring chronicle of Antarctic scientific exploration at its most heroic. It is a tale of vision, courage, endurance, patriotism, loyalty, and all the strengths and frailties of the human spirit. Above all, it is good science, good history, and gripping reading." - J.W. Zillman, (president of the World Meteorological Organization)

"A great adventure story, made even more compelling by a modern scientific detective." Bruce Babbit, former Secretary of the Interior "Scott's South Pole expedition ended in tragedy. This book is a valuable and sympathetic contribution to the great story, written by the leader of an expedition that ended in triumph." - Jonathan Weiner, (author of The Beak of the Finch and Time, Love, Memory)

I am glad that you like the new additions (smile).

I'll add some more books once other readers join it, don't want to hog it all for myself!

No, go ahead. The thread is for these additions. So do not be shy.

The Wind at Morning

An accurate account of Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation around the world written as a short story. The authour writes at the start of the book that no part of the story is fictitious, only the narrator is part of his imagination- so it's an entertaining way to read up on possibly the most important voyage ever made.

Magellan was the first man the navigate the globe and discover that the world isn't flat. The story deals with many of the details of his life and is a highly enjoyable read.

Love this book. Read it several years ago. It is an amazing story.
by Alfred Lansing
The astonishing saga of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's survival for over a year on the ice-bound Antarctic seas, as "Time" magazine put it, "defined heroism". Alfred Lansing's scrupulously researched and brilliantly narrated book--with over 200,000 copies sold--has long been acknowledged as the definitive account of the "Endurance's" fateful trip. of photos and maps. Nationwide traveling museum exhibition.

Max wrote: "
The Wind at Morning

An accurate account of Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation around the world written as a short story. The authour write..."

Max, remember our citations all have three parts in the best of circumstances: bookcover (usually available); the author's photo when available and always the author's link. You are missing the author's link. When there is no image available then we add the link and say that there is no cover.

The Wind at Morning - (no bookcover available) by James Vance Marshall - (no author's photo available)

Thanks for the add Max.

No problem Max, you gave it the old college try and you will get the hang of it soon. You had a rather tough one with no bookcover and no author's photo.

Normally, the citations would look like this if all three parts were available:

by Winston S. Churchill

or like Alisa's in message 8 if only the bookcover and the author's link were available and no author's photo.

I am sure that next time you may get an easier one to cite.

Good to see you Max and a nice recommendation too! Here are a few good books covering Captain Cook, well known to Max and my countrymen:

by Richard Alexander Hough

by Martin Dugard

by Vanessa Collingridge

A more light hearted account with some humour:

by Tony Horwitz

A recent book which I have not read yet:

by Geoffrey Blainey

Nice to see you, Rick.

Ah yes, Captain Cook- one of Britain's best! Thanks for putting those up Rick, I'll add them to my list straight away.

Thanks for the Captain Cook books for consideration, I have been interested in reading something about him for a long time.
I was looking at a this new book :

by Frank McLynn

I loved Lansing's book too
By Alfred Lansing

I have book that I have not read yet on the other half of the Shackleton's expedition
by Kelly Tyler-Lewis

Here is a newer book on Magellan I have not read yet:
by Laurence Bergreen

You beat me to the Shackleton story, Tom. I was coming here to recommend that one. I think I read the Lansing one you mentioned, but somehow I have the one by Worsley on my shelves. (Worsley being one of the men on the expedition.) I know that isn't the one I read, but I'd like to sometime.

by Alfred Lansing and by Frank Arthur Worsley

That one about the other side of the story sounds fascinating as well. The whole story is inspiring.

A book that has been waiting on my shelf for a while is:

by Marco Polo

Elizabeth S wrote: "You beat me to the Shackleton story, Tom.."

Alisa beat us both.

It is a fascinating story, with quite a few books about it, Just noticed a new Shackleton book coming out soon

by Edward J. Larson

Sorry Alisa! Didn't notice it up there earlier.

'Henry Morton Stanley' sounds like another interesting explorer that I have not read about yet


by Tim Jeal

by Frank McLynn

There is of course Travels In The Land Of Kublilai Khan written by Marco Polo himself.

Max wrote: "
There is of course Travels In The Land Of Kublilai Khan written by Marco Polo himself."

Don't forget the author photo. (Although since I doubt anyone ever took a photograph of Marco Polo, maybe we should just call it an honorary photo.)

by Marco Polo

When goodreads has a photo for the author, it is cool to see it. I've noticed it can help differentiate between authors with similar names. Regardless, it is one of the rules for the HBC.

You add the author photo the same way you do the book cover and author link, by using the "add book/author" feature. There is a radio button at the bottom of the author tab, allowing you to switch between "link" and "photo". When you are looking at the author in the "add book/author" pop-up, and you see there is an avatar photo for the author, then please include both the photo and the link. I hope this helps. If I didn't explain it clearly, please let me know.

By the way, I don't think we've seen you in the Introductions thread yet. When you have a moment, jump over to introduce yourself to the whole group so we can all welcome you:

http://www.africa-eu.com/topic/show/9...

Max, the goodreads software is set up so that if you cite the book and author links together then it will populate the site properly so that people can 1 - see the correct book and author and 2 - find discussions about books that interest them. Elizabeth correctly noted the way to add both but if you need help beyond the mechanics of the board thread you can PM any of the moderators and we'll give you a hand.

Thanks for your contributions!

Below are a range of exploration books by Fergus Fleming, all good accounts of interesting men and regions.


& & & by Fergus Fleming

Here's another from my to-read list:

by Jon Krakauer

From the goodreads description:

A powerful, cautionary tale of adventure gone horribly wrong, Into Thin Air became an instant bestseller upon publication. A childhood dream of some day ascending Mt. Everest, a lifelong love of climbing, and an expense account all propelled writer Jon Krakauer to the top of the Himalayas in May 1996. With a guide claiming "We've got the mountain wired," Krakauer found that for 65 grand, you could climb the world's tallest peak. This hubris, and a freak storm, claimed the lives of seven members of his expedition, and narrowly avoided killing Krakauer and many more.

It can seem duplicative, I get that. What we find on these threads where several books are discussed or mentioned is that the tracking can get lost very quickly, and a lot of people do not scroll through the thread and just keep rolling through the discussion. Pretty soon it gets jumbled, no matter how intuitive or obvious it might seem, we do it this way to avoid having to clarify it all later. On the featured reads that are only dedicated to one book we do not require that book or author to be posted, but if other works are mentioned outside the discussed item then we do. You will see that elsewhere on our clubs reading threads if you are exploring around the different topics.

Thanks so much for your understanding and patience with how things are done. The History Book CLub is a big site and the moderators are all volunteers so the set up is designed to keep it organized, which we have found makes for a better experience for our members.

Thanks again for your posts. Your contributions are terrific.

Well said, Alisa. Thanks for understanding, Max.

Max, we have guidelines which we ask everyone to follow: bookcover, author's photo, and always the author's link. Sometimes the author's photo is not available but if it is we add that as well. I think that Alisa and Elizabeth explained everything above. And we do this not only to keep the site organized but to make better use of the goodreads software when populating our site.

It is always best if you have a question about procedures or processes to write a PM to one of the moderators and they will explain. Also, we do not spend time on the site explaining basic guidelines to each and every group member. That is why we post them on the introductory thread; we find this works best and they are not optional. We will however give you as much help as you need. Thanks for understanding Max.

Note: I cleaned up as many extemporaneous posts as I could.

I have read a few very good and very interesting books on Franklin's lost expedition but here is one recent book that I have not gotten around to reading yet:

by Andrew D. Lambert
Description:
In 1845 Captain Sir John Franklin led a large, well equipped expedition to complete the conquest of the Canadian Arctic, to find the fabled North West Passage connecting the North Atlantic to the North Pacific. Yet Franklin, his ships and men were fated never to return. The cause of their loss remains a mystery. Shocked by the disappearance of all 129 officers and men, and sickened by reports of cannibalism, the Victorians re-created Franklin as the brave Christian hero who laid down his life, and those of his men. Later generations have been more sceptical about Franklin and his supposed selfless devotion to duty. But does either view really explain why this outstanding scientific navigator found his ships trapped in pack ice seventy miles from magnetic north? Andrew Lambert re-examines the life and the evidence with his customary brilliance and authority. In this riveting story of the Arctic, he discovers a new Franklin: a character far more complex, and more truly heroic, than previous histories have allowed.

Here are another two books covering some famous explorers, both that I own but am yet to read:

by Laurence Bergreen
Description:
In September 1298, the rival Italian republics of Genoa and Venice fought a fierce sea battle at Curzola off the rocky coast of southern Dalmatia. Among the thousands of Venetians taken captive was one Marco Polo: gentleman, merchant and sometime traveller to the East...
Confined to a Genoese jail, Marco recounted his story to Rustichello of Pisa, a writer of Arthurian romances. As Rustichello listened to the extraordinary details of his fellow prisoner's travels in the Middle East, Central Asia and China, he realized that he was hearing one of the most remarkable tales ever told. Together, Rustichello and Marco turned the story of this journey into a book known as Il Milione. Translated into countless languages during Marco's lifetime, Il Milione enjoyed a huge popular success, and would play a significant role in stimulating European interest in the mystique of the Far East and all its riches.
Marco Polo: from Venice to Xanadu is Laurence Bergreen's thrilling and masterly reconstruction of Marco Polo's life and wanderings. Born into a wealthy merchant family in a Venetian republic at the height of its political and trading power, between 1271 and 1275 Marco accompanied his father Niccolo and uncle Maffeo on a journey east from Acre into Central Asia along the Silk Road. They eventually reached China and the court of the Great Khan, in whose service Marco worked for the next seventeen years, travelling extensively in the lands of the Mongol Empire.
From its glorious depictions of thirteenth-century Venice to its haunting evocation of the Asian steppe and the splendours of the court of Kublai Khan, Marco Polo: from Venice to Xanadu is an epic account of a perilous transcontinental journey, and a memorable record of the coming together of the cultures of East and West. This is popular narrative history at its most accomplished, by a writer at the height of his descriptive and story-telling powers.

Review:
"A fascinating account of one man's amazing life." - Sunday Express

by Ronald Watkins
Description:
The Portuguese led the way. Still today, landmarks, coastlines and currents around the world bear Portuguese names, and the oceans of the world are one vast watery grave for Portuguese seamen. The reward they bequeathed was an empire that stretched from China to Brazil, and included much of Africa and Southern Asia. The peak of their achievement was Vasco da Gama's discovery of a sea route to India, and therefore to unimaginable wealth. Yet the discoverers were not lured only by gold, precious stones and spices. They were driven to colonise, to enslave, to bring the certainty of their religion to the unconverted, even to outflank the Muslims and re-conquer Jerusalem. Reconstructing journeys from contemporary logs and papers, Ronald Watkins chronicles the lengths to which they went, pioneering uncertain technologies, even modifying their ships en route to the Indies. This absorbing and wonderfully vivid account brings to life the captains driving their small ships over the horizon; and the far-off, not always friendly traders they met. He depicts the lives of the ordinary sailors, rarely seen, who suffered for trade, religion and imperial power and who forced European rivals to concede that only the Portuguese could find India.

Reviews:
“Eclipsed for us by Columbus's westward voyages on the one hand and post-colonial proprietary feelings towards Africa and India on the other, the explorations of 15th-century Portuguese navigators have not had the recognition they've deserved in Britain ! A gripping adventure narrative, this book makes a persuasive case for the reassessment of a crucial episode in history.” - Scotsman

“'This book gives a well-organised account of Portuguese preparations for the expedition, and da Gama's exploits during his 2-year voyage 1497--99! The text flows well, and the accounts of his dealings with various groups who were none too co-operative are stirring stuff. It is a fine read.” - Naval Review

“This is a story of incredible achievements immaculately told and well worth a place on any armchair mariner’s bookshelf.” - NHCRA

Great adds Aussie Rick.

Here are three books covering French explorers; Louis De Bougainville, Jean-Francois de la Perouse, and Dumont d'Urville.

by John Dunmore
Description:
Louis-Antoine Comte de Bougainville (1729-1811) is best known for his circumnavigation of the globe from 1766 to 1769. Throughout a long and distinguished life, however, he participated in many of the turning points of world history: the birth of the United States, the fall of French Canada, the opening of the Pacific, the French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars, the crowning of Napoleon and the modernisation of France. Bougainville was also a witty and charming courtier, becoming one of Napoleon's senators. A true Man of the Enlightenment, he was gifted in navigation, seamanship, soldiering, mathematics, longitude and latitude--many of the arts that made his age one of the most productive and creative in history. John Dunmore, a distinguished historian and an expert in French Pacific exploration, brings the man and his era to life in this vivid and elegantly written biography.

by John Dunmore
Description:
French explorer and naval officer Jean-Franois de la Prouse (1741 - 88) was, after James Cook, the greatest explorer of the Pacific in the eighteenth century. In 1785, La Perouse was commissioned by Louis XVI to head an expedition into the uncharted regions of the Pacific Ocean. Setting out from France, the expedition over the next three years was the first to map the coasts of California, Alaska, and Siberia. From there, La Prouse continued to Easter Island and Hawaii, where La Prouse Bay bears his name. After a stop in Botany Bay, Australia, La Prouse's two ships set out for the Solomon Islands. En route, they encountered a storm and were sunk; despite search efforts over the centuries, no trace of the wreckage of La Prouse's ships has been found. Where Fate Beckons tells the story of La Prouse's life and adventures, along the way providing a lively introduction to the world of French colonialism, the end of the Age of Exploration, and French society in the years leading to the French Revolution.

by John Dunmore
Description:
High adventure, drama, discovery, science and map making. This is the first-ever full-length English language biography of D'Urville - one of the nineteenth century's great explorers.Bad-tempered and irreverent, D'Urville was loved by his men but hated by his superiors. He didn't care either way. His passion for science drove him forward as he explored the Pacific - from Guam to Antarctica and from New Guinea to Chile, collecting a vast number of natural history specimens and recording extensive hydrographical information. Hobart was frequently a base and D'Urville is credited with making the single greatest contribution to perfecting the map of the Pacific.He was not consumed with French colonial arrogance, often preferring the societies he visited to his own. He was however given the prestigious French Legion of Honour. He is often remembered for arranging the purchase of the famous statue Venus De Milo (whose arms were broken off in the battle to get her to Paris). His life ended in a railway accident in 1842.

This book; "Disaster at the Pole", by Wilbur Cross is one of my favourite books on modern arctic exploration. It's a great story and well worth the time to read if you can get a copy.

by Wilbur Cross
Description:
Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen. The great twentieth-century polar explorers. But others, too, were engaged in scrambles to the poles. One of the most bizarre and unfortunate involved that enormous and impressive spectacle of aviation's early days: the airship. In 1926, against the backdrop of Mussolini's rising power, General Umberto Nobile, one of Italy's premier aeronautical engineers, gained acclaim by crossing the Pole in a dirigible, accompanied by the famous Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. It was an unprecedented achievement for a lighter-than-air craft, and it would have gone down in history as the first flight over the Pole had Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett not accomplished that feat in an airplane only three days before. Encouraged by his success, Nobile decided in 1928 to take a newly designed dirigible to the North Pole, land men who could conduct scientific explorations, and then fly them safely back to base. But on the Italia's return flight, disaster struck. The ship crashed down on the ice pack hundreds of miles from help. The survivors, including the injured Nobile, were stranded on an unstable ice floe, desperately trying to make radio contact with the outside world. Their disappearance inspired one of the most far-reaching rescue missions ever undertaken. Seven nations and hundreds of men in air, sea, and land reconnaissance engaged in a needle-in-a-haystack search over the arctic wastes. Many of the would-be rescuers were injured or killed - the most famous being Roald Amundsen, who lost his life in a plane crash. Drawing on interviews he conducted with Umberto Nobile and other survivors in the 1950s, Wilbur Cross resurrects a stunning tale that has been long overlooked by history. He brings to life the struggles of the survivors throughout nearly two months on the ice, including the fate of three men who set off on a doomed trek to reach help. Disaster at the Pole also reveals the truths of the controversy surrounding Nobile, who was rescued first and was accused of cowardice and desertion by Italy's fascist government. Filled with political intrigue, heroics, and cruel twists of fate, the story of the Italia is one of the most fascinating among polar tragedies.

Reviews:
"This is an intriguing, at times even heart-stopping, account of an almost-forgotten aviation disaster: a race to fly a dirigible to the North Pole, land the airship and then return to civilization. Led by Umberto Nobile, the Italian aeronautic engineer and airship designer who had crossed the North Pole in a dirigible just two years earlier, the crew of the airship Italia suddenly crashed and was stranded in the frozen north as an international team of rescuers tried, initially unsuccessfully, to save the few survivors. Cross, a former editor at Life magazine, spent more than 30 years researching the crash and its aftermath (interviewing the few living survivors, including Nobile, who had kept copious records, even while fighting against starvation at the North Pole); however, the detail never overwhelms an exciting, well-wrought story. What makes this work stand out among other tales of harrowing heroism is its political intrigue and Cross's deft handling of this added complexity. His presentation of Nobile's overtly unwilling participation in the Fascist reign of Benito Mussolini, as well as the power struggles among the Fascisti for control of what was seen as the next great aviation powerhouse, adds a sad depth and pertinent humanity to Nobile's personal and professional ordeal. His "very real human flaws were greatly accentuated by the circumstances" of living in Italy during the 1920s and 1930s." - Publishers Weekly

"In 1925, the renowned Italian aeronautical engineer and explorer Umberto Nobile flew over the North Pole in a dirigible, at the time a considerable feat both of engineering and scientific inquiry. All went well, and in 1928 Nobile attempted to repeat the feat, this time planning on stopping at the pole and landing parties. Unfortunately, Nobile was no longer in favor with the increasingly strident Fascist government and faced many political and physical obstacles. However, he managed to get the expedition airborne and reached the pole safely. On the return leg, the airship foundered in foul weather, stranding the survivors on the icecap. A bizarre tragedy ensued, with searchers from many nations looking for Nobile while the Italian support ship conspicuously failed to participate. A nearly forgotten episode comes to life in this popular history by Cross, a prolific author and former editor at Life." - Library Journal

"Cross, an adventure writer, recounts the true adventure story of the wreck of the dirigible Italia during an expedition to the North Pole in 1928. Political intrigue in the Mussolini regime serves as backdrop for the 49-day drama of confused international rescue efforts that ended in the ruined reputation of the airship's designer, General Umberto Nobile. An engineer and scientist, Nobile pioneered the development of lightweight airships but was constantly at odds with the Mussolini regime. He undertook the 1928 expedition to best a previous achievement by landing at the Pole and returning to base camp. However, the expedition ended when the dirigible struck an ice pack in the Arctic Ocean. Nobile was rescued, but several of his crew perished. Cross interviewed Nobile and other survivors and offers a detailed account of the harrowing wreck, survival on ice floes, and heroic rescue attempts. Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was among the rescuers who never returned. Cross conveys the political tensions, contentious personalities, technical difficulties, and weather challenges that figured in this polar tragedy." - Booklist

I picked up a copy of this book yesterday on special and it has received some great reviews; "The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Making of History's Greatest Map" by Toby Lester.

by Toby Lester
Description:
"Old maps lead you to strange and unexpected places, and none does so more ineluctably than the subject of this book: the giant, beguiling Waldseemüller world map of 1507." So begins this remarkable story of the map that gave America its name.

For millennia Europeans believed that the world consisted of three parts: Europe, Africa, and Asia. They drew the three continents in countless shapes and sizes on their maps, but occasionally they hinted at the existence of a "fourth part of the world," a mysterious, inaccessible place, separated from the rest by a vast expanse of ocean. It was a land of myth—until 1507, that is, when Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann, two obscure scholars working in the mountains of eastern France, made it real. Columbus had died the year before convinced that he had sailed to Asia, but Waldseemüller and Ringmann, after reading about the Atlantic discoveries of Columbus’s contemporary Amerigo Vespucci, came to a startling conclusion: Vespucci had reached the fourth part of the world. To celebrate his achievement, Waldseemüller and Ringmann printed a huge map, for the first time showing the New World surrounded by water and distinct from Asia, and in Vespucci’s honor they gave this New World a name: America.

The Fourth Part of the World is the story behind that map, a thrilling saga of geographical and intellectual exploration, full of outsize thinkers and voyages. Taking a kaleidoscopic approach, Toby Lester traces the origins of our modern worldview. His narrative sweeps across continents and centuries, zeroing in on different portions of the map to reveal strands of ancient legend, Biblical prophecy, classical learning, medieval exploration, imperial ambitions, and more. In Lester’s telling the map comes alive: Marco Polo and the early Christian missionaries trek across Central Asia and China; Europe’s early humanists travel to monastic libraries to recover ancient texts; Portuguese merchants round up the first West African slaves; Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci make their epic voyages of discovery; and finally, vitally, Nicholas Copernicus makes an appearance, deducing from the new geography shown on the Waldseemüller map that the earth could not lie at the center of the cosmos. The map literally altered humanity’s worldview.

One thousand copies of the map were printed, yet only one remains. Discovered accidentally in 1901 in the library of a German castle it was bought in 2003 for the unprecedented sum of $10 million by the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public display. Lavishly illustrated with rare maps and diagrams, The Fourth Part of the World is the story of that map: the dazzling story of the geographical and intellectual journeys that have helped us decipher our world.


Reviews:
“With the excitement and exhilaration of an explorer, Atlantic contributor Lester sets off on his own journey of discovery across the seas of cartography and history. In 2003, the Library of Congress paid $10 million for the only existing copy of the 1507 map that was the first to show the New World and call it America. Lester ranges over the history of cartography, such as the zonal maps of the Middle Ages that divided the world into three parts—Africa, Europe and Asia. In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann, working with a small group of scholars in a small town in eastern France produced their map, based on Amerigo Vespucci's voyages to the West and discovery of South America. In just a few decades the Waldseemüller map was out of date, but its world-changing status lived on, and in 1901 a Jesuit priest, poking around a small German castle, stumbled on a copy. Lester traces the map's journey to America over the next century in a majestic tribute to a historic work.” - Publishers Weekly

“Marvelously imaginative, exhaustively researched. . . . Guiding the reader Virgil-like through the Age of Discovery, Lester introduces a chronologically and conceptually vast array of Great Men (Columbus, Vespucci, Polo, Copernicus, et al.), competing theories, monastic sages, forgotten poets, opportunistic merchants, unfortunate slaves, and more. That he relates it all so cleanly and cogently—via elegant prose, relaxed erudition, measured pacing, and purposeful architecture—is a feat. That he proffers plentiful visual delights, including detailed views of the legendary document, is a gift. This map, Lester writes, ‘draws you in, reveals itself in stages, and doesn’t let go.’ Nor does this splendid volume.” - The Atlantic

“An intellectual detective story. By using the [WaldseemÜller] map as a lens through which to view a nexus of myth, imagination, technology, stupidity, and imperial ambition, Lester has penned a provocative, disarming testament to human ambition and ingenuity.” - The Boston Globe

"Lester pulls on the threads of WaldseemÜller's map and finds an extraordinary braid of influences. [He] builds a cumulative tale of rich, diverse influences that he juggles with gathering speed and showmanship until the whir of detail coalesces into an inspired, imaginative piece of mapmaking.” - San Francisco Chronicle

“Fascinating. Without Toby Lester's fine book, the WaldseemÜller Map might remain an interesting historical footnote. Instead, one now understands the creation of the map as a world-changing moment, "a birth certificate for the world that came into being in 1492 -- and a death warrant for the one that was there before.’" - Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“Lester captures the passion, curiosity and, at times, the hubris behind the European explorations. His real interest lies in the evolution of Europeans' perception of the world, as reflected by their maps, an approach that works splendidly. To mid-millennial Europeans, there was nothing over the western sea but mystery and legends about islands, monsters and mythical beings. It took courage to sail off into that unknown, and Lester's book offers a clear survey of how people came to understand the world in which they lived.” - The Washington Post

“Maps – intricate, absurd, fantastical, ridiculous – fill this beautiful book, reinforcing Lester’s thesis that they tell us as much about their makers as our surroundings. The heretofore unknown fourth part of the world was an enormous, unspoiled continent whose natural resources could be exploited and whose natives could be converted, sold into slavery, or exterminated. Like any train wreck, the controversies of this historical moment fascinate.” - The Christian 카지노싸이트 Monitor

Here is a new account covering Polar exploration:


by Edward J. Larson
Description:
Published to coincide with the centenary of the first expeditions to reach the South Pole, An Empire of Ice presents a fascinating new take on Antarctic exploration. Retold with added information, it's the first book to place the famed voyages of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, his British rivals Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton, and others in a larger scientific, social, and geopolitical context.

Efficient, well prepared, and focused solely on the goal of getting to his destination and back, Amundsen has earned his place in history as the first to reach the South Pole. Scott, meanwhile, has been reduced in the public mind to a dashing incompetent who stands for little more than relentless perseverance in the face of inevitable defeat. An Empire of Ice offers a new perspective on the Antarctic expeditions of the early twentieth century by looking at the British efforts for what they actually were: massive scientific enterprises in which reaching the South Pole was but a spectacular sideshow. By focusing on the larger purpose, Edward Larson deepens our appreciation of the explorers' achievements, shares little-known stories, and shows what the Heroic Age of Antarctic discovery was really about.

Reviews:
"Empire of Ice is a new take on polar exploration of the early 20th century. It puts expeditions by Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton et al. into a wider scientific, social and geopolitical context." - Travel Book Seller

"Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Larson sheds new light on the famous three-way race to the South Pole....A satisfying tale of adventure and exploration." - Kirkus Reviews

"Larson succeeds in this approach to the popular subject of polar exploration by wrapping the science in plenty of dangerous drama to keep readers engaged." - Booklist

I hope I'm putting this book in the correct forum spot but I would like to recommend
by ed. David Seed . This book pulls together numerous journal entries, travel diaries and letters written by many famous (and some more obscure) Americans such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Samuel Curwen, Washington Irvine and John James Audubon. Many of these American merchants, artists, authors and gents stopped off in Liverpool en route to the continent and their diaries and descriptions have helped to build up a colourful and valuable picture of Liverpool in the 18th and 19th century. A very interesting read.

Shovelmonkey1, looks like a great recommendation and yes you put it in the correct format. Thank you, on both accounts!

I've just stumbled across this new book on Columbus in case it interests anyone else here are the details:


by Laurence Bergreen
Description:
Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a trading route to China, and his unexpected landfall in the Americas, is a watershed event in world history. Yet Columbus made three more voyages within the span of only a decade, each designed to demonstrate that he could sail to China within a matter of weeks and convert those he found there to Christianity. These later voyages were even more adventurous, violent, and ambiguous, but they revealed Columbus's uncanny sense of the sea, his mingled brilliance and delusion, and his superb navigational skills. In all these exploits he almost never lost a sailor. By their conclusion, however, Columbus was broken in body and spirit. If the first voyage illustrates the rewards of exploration, the latter voyages illustrate the tragic costs- political, moral, and economic.

In rich detail Laurence Bergreen re-creates each of these adventures as well as the historical background of Columbus's celebrated, controversial career. Written from the participants' vivid perspectives, this breathtakingly dramatic account will be embraced by readers of Bergreen's previous biographies of Marco Polo and Magellan and by fans of Nathaniel Philbrick, Simon Winchester, and Tony Horwitz.

I also saw a copy of this book today which looked very interesting and I only just watched a TV documentary on Mallory which I found fascinating so this may be a a book I have to order.

by Wade Davis
Review:
"Into the Silence is quite unlike any other mountaineering book. It not only spins a gripping Boy's Own yarn about the early British expeditions to Everest, but investigates how the carnage of the trenches bled into a desire for redemption at the top of the world ... There was never any danger of the author being under-prepared. Davis, a Canadian anthropologist and adventurer, spent 10 years researching this book, and it shows ... At its heart, Into the Silence is an elegy for a lost generation. Indeed, when Mallory and Irvine 'vanished into a world known only to them' on June 8, 1924, the empire mourned more than two untimely deaths. A friend, Geoffrey Young, wrote that "in that final magnificent venture against the unknown, we are thrilled by the knightly purpose, by the evident joyousness of the attempt, as much as by the audacity and endurance. It is the burning spirit of chivalrous, youthful adventure, flaming at the close, higher than the highest summit of the known world ... The same could be said for Into the Silence: a magnificent, audacious venture" - The Sunday Times

by Peter C. Mancall(no photo)

This book popped up on my radar screen and it looks interesting.
Description
Tells the story of the expedition starting in the winter of 1610 with a 22 man crew that included his seventeen year old son. They took a northerly route past Iceland, became ice bound and spend seven months there until the summer thaw. Chronicles the undoing of this great explorer.

I'd like to add The Travels of Ibn Battutah by Ibn Battuta

Description: Ibn Battutah—ethnographer, bigrapher, anecdotal historian and occasional botanist—was just 21 when he set out in 1325 from his native Tangier on a pilgramage to Mecca. He did not return to Morocco for another 29 years, traveling instead through more than 40 countries on the modern map, covering 75,000 miles and getting as far north as the Volga, as far east as China, and as far south as Tanzania. He wrote of his travels, and comes across as a superb ethnographer, biographer, anecdotal historian, and occasional botanist and gastronome. This edition is edited by Tim Mackintosh-Smith.

I read it about the same time as I read this
Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
which offered an interesting perspective on both narratives.

Description: "Ibn Battutah, the greatest traveler of the pre-mechanical age, set out in 1325 from his native Tangiers on the pilgrimage to Mecca. By the time he returned twenty-nine years later, he had visited most of the known world, traveling three times the distance Marco Polo allegedly covered." Captivated by the paths taken and the words written by this inquistive, untiring man - a great Tangerine, or resident of Tangiers - Arabic scholar and award-winning travel writer Tim Mackintosh-Smith retraces the first stage of the Moroccan's eccentric journey, from Tangiers to Constantinople, traveling both in Ibn Battutah's footsteps and in the footnotes of his text, rooting out memorabilia of the man and his age. Destinations include the Egyptian desert, castles in Syria, the Kuria Muria Islands in the Arabian Sea, the shores of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and some of the greatest cities of medieval Islam. Mackintosh-Smith also explores a parellel landscape: the contemporary Muslim world, filled with wonders and marvels, at once fresh and strangely resonant with echoes of Ibn Battutah's own travels.

Thank you Kiri and great job with the citations; however Ibn had a picture of sorts - but great job for a newbie.

by Ibn Battuta

I enjoyed this a while back and thought other members might like it too

by David Grann

Description:
In 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless people perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called "The Lost City of Z". In this masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett's quest for "Z" & his own journey into the deadly jungle, as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century

That looks like a very interesting book, Geevee and I just might have to put it on the TBR list. Thanks for the add.

David Grann

Let me add another Shackleton book....this one is a definitive account of the Brtitish Antarctic Expedition, the crucial "prequel" to the renowned Endurance expedition.

by Beau Riffenburgh (no photo)

Here is another take on exploration in general. The longitude problem was the thorniest scientific problem of the 18th century; with no way to measure distance across the ocean, sailors had literally been lost at sea as soon as they were out of sight of land. The British Parliament offered a staggering reward for anyone who could solve this problem. A clockmaker rose to the challenge. An interesting story, wonderfully told with a forward by someone who knows a little bit about exploration, Colonel Neil Armstrong.

by Dava Sobel

A good book there Jill, nice post.

This book has just been released in Australia; "Mawson: And the Ice Men of the Heroic Age: Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen" by Peter FitzSimons, it's on my Christmas list :)


by Peter FitzSimons
Description:
The incredible story of Australia's most famous polar explorer and the giants from the heroic age of polar exploration Douglas Mawson, born in 1882 and knighted in 1914, was Australia's greatest Antarctic explorer. This is the incredible account of an expedition he led on December 2, 1911, from Hobart, to explore the virgin frozen coastline below, 2000 miles of which had never felt the tread of a human foot. After setting up Main Base at Cape Denision and Western Base on Queen Mary Land, he headed east on an extraordinary sledging trek with his companions, Belgrave Ninnis and Dr Xavier Mertz. After five weeks, tragedy struck—Ninnis was swallowed whole by a snow-covered crevasse, and Mawson and Mertz realized it was too dangerous to go on. Dwindling supplies forced them to kill their dogs to feed the other dogs, at first, and then themselves. Hunger, sickness, and despair eventually got the better of Ninnis, and he succumbed to madness and then to death. Mawson found himself all alone, 160 miles from safety, with next to no food. This staggering tale of his survival, against all odds, also masterfully interweaves the stories of the other giants from the heroic age of polar exploration, to bring the jaw-dropping events of this bygone era dazzlingly back to life

Thanks Aussie Rick, I have read a couple of books specifically on Shackleton and Scott, but not Mawson - this one caught my eye a while back:

by Beau Riffenburgh

This is on my TBR too
by Apsley Cherry-Garrard

Two very good books there Geevee. I have this book on Apsley Cherry-Garrard that I am yet to read, soon I hope!


by Sara Wheeler
Description:
After serving in the First War Cherry was invalided home, and with the zealous encouragement of his neighbour Bernard Shaw he wrote a masterpiece. In The Worst Journey in the World Cherry transformed tragedy and grief into something fine. But as the years unravelled he faced a terrible struggle against depression, breakdown and despair, haunted by the possibility that he could have saved Scott and his companions. This is the first biography and a brilliant one. Sara Wheeler, who has travelled extensively in the Antarctic, has had unrestricted access to new material and the full co-operation of Cherry's family.

Reviews:
"Her biography brilliantly succeeds...a formidable accomplishment." - Sunday Telegraph

"Superb." - Guardian

"Beautiful … written with unfailing eloquence and grace, and great admiration for its subject." - Independent

This is a little book that takes the reader on an exploration of little known and far flung islands. It includes anecdotes about stranded slaves, lonely naturalists, aberrant explorers, forgotten ships and mutinous sailors. It tells us how people got there and why they stay there. For the armchair explorer in all of us.

by Judith Schalansky