A master seaman himself, Morison personally retraced the voyages of the early explorers, charting his travels in maps and photographs and comparing these to the maps and travelogues of the early sailors. The resulting two-volume The European Discovery of America was widely acclaimed both for its author's incomparable knowledge of history, cartography, and sea navigation and for the fresh immediacy of its writing.
The Great Explorers abridges this great work, following the voyages of Columbus, Magellan, Drake, and many more. Here is the fascinating story of these explorers' ventures into uncharted waters, their encounters with natives, and their joy - and surprise - at discovering new land.
©1978 Oxford University Press; (P)1995 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
"What a story! And how worthily the writer tells it!.... To read this book is to be a privileged passenger on the bridge beside a master mariner who... imparts the wisdoms of the deep in tones of a salty tang - brisk, skeptical, yet always measured." (The New York Times Book Review)
"One of the most readable and gripping histories in decades." (Boston Globe)
"In all ways admirable, written with wit and easy scholarship.... [Morison] at his entertaining best." (The New Yorker)
This is the finest history of the discoverers in one volume I have ever seen! I have been studying, living in and teaching about Latin America for 3 decades, and to my misfortune, i am only now getting around to this master piece of historical description (and some analysis where necessary to deduce facts as left out of the written record, but always very carefully and with great effort to be true to the actual history and culture of the age). I listened to this book, and I wish i had bought the book so that i could see the pictures and used it as a reference book in the future. I will recommend its purchase for the local library.
If you are at all interested in the truth about these corageous, smart, tough, driven men and their age, read this book!
At first i was a little distracted by his accent, but that quickly passed and i grew to anxiously look forward to hearing him tell me more and more of the story. He was just right.
My reaction was "there has never been braver, tougher, smarter, nor more religious men who changed the world ever! Also, i was reminded that virtually all of the great explorers did not live to enjoy the riches of their conquests, except Cortez who is not a subject of this book.
Forget everything you think you know about the age of discovery and their great captains, and read this book, it will give you a very interesting education!
And I thought I knew all about these brave astronauts of the blue water. This book is for those that know the sea, or thought they did, as this book takes you to the unknown, and the author surely did some great research to pen a book such as this.
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