DescriptionGiven all of the revisionist accounts of the life of Christopher Columbus that have recently surfaced, this classic biography should be mandatory listening for all academicians. Justin Winsor, an historian, poet, literary critic, and fiction writer, retraces every important aspect of Columbus's fascinating life, from his family origins to his beliefs and convictions. Columbus emerges as a living, breathing human being with passions and ideas - a man possessing intellect and imagination. Winsor's opus represents an honest search for the truth.
DescriptionNarrated by award-winning actor Peter Coyote, Unfinished Journey uses journal passages written by expedition members and essays written by top scholars to illuminate the history of the American West from the perspective of the Lewis and Clark exped…
DescriptionThe journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark remain the single most important document in the history of American exploration. Through these tales of adventure, edited by American Book Award nominee Landon Jones, we see the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and western rivers the way Lewis and Clark first observed them: majestic, pristine, uncharted, and awe-inspiring. Landon Jones has selected the most memorable journal entries left behind by Lewis and Clark, and edited them for all readers, those steeped in the lore of the expedition, as well as newcomers to the unforgettable journey.
DescriptionIn 1519 Magellan and his fleet of five ships set sail from Seville, Spain, to discover a water route to the fabled Spice Islands in Indonesia, where the most sought-after commodities (cloves, pepper, and nutmeg) flourished. Three years later, a handful of survivors returned with an abundance of spices from their intended destination, but with just one ship carrying eighteen emaciated men. During their remarkable voyage around the world the crew endured starvation, disease, mutiny, and torture. Many men died, including Magellan, who was violently killed in a fierce battle. This is the first full account in nearly half a century of this voyage into history: a tour of the world emerging from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance; a startling anthropological account of tribes, languages, and customs unknown to Europeans; and a chronicle of a desperate grab for commercial and political power.
DescriptionThe year was 1915. Equipment and food supplies were totally inadequate. After battling its way for six weeks through thousands of miles of pack ice and located only a day's sail from its destination, the Endurance became locked inside an island of ice. Yet Ernest Shackleton enabled all 27 of his men to survive for over a year on the ice-bound Antarctic seas - leadership without equal. This gripping account is based on contemporaneous diaries and interviews conducted by the author with these exceptional men.
