Geographical discovery and exploration Books
Quarto Publishing PLC Atlas of Forgotten Places
Book SynopsisTable of ContentsIntroduction Section 1: Vacant Properties Büyükada Orphelinat, Turkey Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant, Poland Pyramiden, Svalbard, Norway The Castle of Dona Chica, Portugal Sans-Souci Palace, Haiti Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse, Denmark Sammezzano Castle, Italy Section 2: Unsettled Situatons Wünsdorf, Germany Old Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia Mandu, India Craco, Italy Grängesberg, Sweden Plymouth, Montserrat, West Indies Kolmanskop, Namibia Kennecott, Alaska Döllersheim, Austria Section 3: Dilapidated Destinations The West Pier, Brighton, UK Santa Claus, Arizona, US Ducor Palace Hotel, Liberia Hachijo Royal Hotel, Japan Grand Hôtel de la Forêt, Corsica Camelot Theme Park, Lancashire, UK The Salton Sea Riviera, California, US New World Mall, Bangkok, Thailand Kupari, Croatia Hellinikon Olympic Complex, Greece Section 4: Journeys Ended Nicosia Airport, Cyprus Train Graveyard, Uyuni, Bolivia Crystal Palace Subway, London, UK Suakin, Sudan City Hall Subway Station, New York, US Balaklava Submarine Base, Crimea Section 5: Obsolete Institutions St Peter’s Seminary College, Scotland, UK Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital, New York, US Volterra Psychiatric Hospital, Italy Gary City Methodist Church, Indiana, US Akampene Island, Uganda Seaside Sanatorium, Connecticut, US Lennox Castle Hospital, Scotland, UK Alcatraz Prison, California, US Selected Bibliography Picture Credits Acknowledgements Index
£20.00
The History Press Ltd Captain Cooks Merchant Ships
Book SynopsisWhile the story of Endeavour is widely known, Captain Cook sailed with eight ships, which began their lives as merchant vessels. This detailed illustrated history tells the story of these vessels and the people who sailed in them.
£21.99
Crown Publishing Group (NY) Into Africa The Epic Adventures of Stanley
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£15.30
McClelland & Stewart Inc. The Prophets Camel Bell
Book SynopsisWhen Margaret Laurence set out for Somaliland with her engineer husband in 1950, she confronted the difficulty of communication between peoples of vastly different cultures. Yet she came to know the skilled orators, poets and craftsmen of the country, and to share the vision of a people’s struggle for survival in a barren land.The Prophet’s Camel Bell is part travelogue, part autobiography, part celebration of human nature, and essential reading for anyone who has ever been a stranger in a strange land.
£15.26
Hill & Wang Sam Patch the Famous Jumper
Book SynopsisThe true history of a legendary American folk heroIn the 1820s, a fellow named Sam Patch grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, working there (when he wasn''t drinking) as a mill hand for one of America''s new textile companies. Sam made a name for himself one day by jumping seventy feet into the tumultuous waters below Pawtucket Falls. When in 1827 he repeated the stunt in Paterson, New Jersey, another mill town, an even larger audience gathered to cheer on the daredevil they would call the Jersey Jumper. Inevitably, he went to Niagara Falls, where in 1829 he jumped not once but twice in front of thousands who had paid for a good view.The distinguished social historian Paul E. Johnson gives this deceptively simple story all its deserved richness, revealing in its characters and social settings a virtual microcosm of Jacksonian America. He also relates the real jumper to the mythic Sam Patch who turned up as a daring moral hero in the works of Hawthorne and Melvi
£15.30
Washington State University Press The Character of Meriwether Lewis
Book SynopsisMeriwether Lewis commanded the most important exploration mission in the early history of the United States. Clay Jenkinson takes a fresh look at Lewis, not to offer a paper cutout hero but to describe and explain a hyperserious young man of great complexity who found the wilderness of Upper Louisiana as exacting as it was exhilarating.Table of ContentsFOREWORDINTRODUCTIONFRACTURED SOULCHAPTER I Getting There FirstCHAPTER II Meriwether Lewis's Bad DayMapCHAPTER III Birthdays, Holidays, AnniversariesCHAPTER IV Damn You: Lewis and Clark at the ConfluenceMapTHE CHARACTER OF MERIWETHER LEWIS : Paintings by Michael HaynesCHAPTER V The Problem of SilenceTIMELINECHAPTER VI What a Falling Off Was ThereMapCHAPTER VII Why? ACKNOWLEDGMENTSBIBLIOGRAPHYNOTESINDEX
£24.65
Academy Chicago Publishers Voyages of Discovery Captain James Cook
Book SynopsisOn each of his three voyages, James Cook kept a log and his reputation rose steadily with each voyage largely because Europeans were fascinated with the romance of discovery as well as reports of sexual licence in Tahiti and other Polynesian islands. This work features an introduction by Robert Welsch.
£15.26
Academy Chicago Publishers Titanic
Book SynopsisTwo survivors' accounts of the sinking of the Titanic. Colonel Gracie provides details of the final moments, including names of passengers pulled from the ocean and of those men who, in a panic, jumped into lifeboats as they were being lowered. John Thayer’s account, The Sinking of the S.S. Titanic, is meticulously detailed.Trade Review[A] definitive account." –– L.A. Times
£16.16
Bluewood Books,U.S. 100 Explorers Who Shaped World History 100 Series
Book Synopsis
£7.50
Chicago Review Press Race to Hawaii
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A page-turning account of 'the precarious, pioneering flights to Hawaii' during the late 1920s." Kirkus Reviews"Sputtering engines, empty fuel tanks, failed radios, never-ending foglots went wrong when early aviators tried to steer the first planes across the Pacific....Jason Ryan thrillingly recounts each pitfall as he details American airmen's ultimate triumph over the world's mightiest ocean." WINSTON GROOM, author of The Aviators and Forrest Gump" Race to Hawaii takes you on a wild ride over 2,400 miles of storm-tossed skies to a tropical paradise. Painting a mural of America's quest to reach Hawaii by air in lush, vivid colors, Jason Ryan breathes life into the death-defying pioneers of aviation's golden age." JONATHAN W. JORDAN, author of Brothers, Rivals, Victors and American Warlords"Beautifully captures the excitement, wonder, and tragedy of the pioneering age of aviation. Combining masterful research with his gift for storytelling, Jason Ryan has brought to life a thrilling story of adventure filled with an incredible cast of characters. This is, without a doubt, one of the best books I've read in ages. Race to Hawaii simply soars!" JAMES M. SCOTT, 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Target Tokyo"Jason Ryan's expertly told Race to Hawaii tells the fascinating, thrilling, and sometimes tragic story of the first flights to Hawaii in the 1920s, and the fearless pilots who risked everything for a chance at fame and money." CATE LINEBERRY, author of Be Free or Die"We all know Lucky Lindy conquered the Atlantic. But the Pacific was much wider and the goal just some distant specks of land. Learn who accomplished this impossible feat and how they did it in Jason Ryan's Race to Hawaii ." JAMES BRADLEY, author of Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys"The characters in this book are so colorful you think you're reading fiction. . . . Ryan has uncovered a simply amazing tale." SKIP HOLLANDSWORTH, author of The Midnight Assassin"This is a tremendous read and a meticulously researched historical account of American aviators who embodied the courage to fly into the unknown. Not to be missed." JOHN BRUNING, author of Indestructible: One Man's Rescue Mission That Changed the Course of WWII
£21.56
Green Writers Press One Cabin One Cat Three Years
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£24.79
Hawthorne Books Joy Ride A Bike Odyssey from Alaska to Argentina
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£15.96
Crown Archetype Spaceman
Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NASA astronaut Mike Massimino shares incredible true stories from space—a rare, wonderful world where science meets the most thrilling adventure. “Mike is a spaceman through and through; he tells how hard work can take you out of this world.”—Bill Nye the Science Guy Have you ever wondered what it would be like to find yourself strapped to a giant rocket that’s about to go from zero to 17,500 miles per hour? Or to look back on Earth from outer space and see the surprisingly precise line between day and night? Or to stand in front of the Hubble Space Telescope, wondering if the emergency repair you’re about to make will inadvertently ruin humankind’s chance to unlock the universe’s secrets? Mike Massimino has been there, and in Spaceman he puts you inside the suit, with all the zip and buoyancy of life in microgravity.Massimino’s childhood space dreams were born the day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. Growing up in a working-class Long Island family, he catapulted himself to Columbia and then MIT, only to flunk his first doctoral exam and be rejected three times by NASA before making it through the final round of astronaut selection.Taking us through the surreal wonder and beauty of his first spacewalk, the tragedy of losing friends in the Columbia shuttle accident, and the development of his enduring love for the Hubble Telescope—which he and his fellow astronauts were tasked with saving on his final mission—Massimino has written an ode to never giving up, revealing just what having “the right stuff” really means.
£23.19
St Martin's Press Empire of Ice and Stone
Book SynopsisNational Outdoor Book Awards WinnerThe true, harrowing story of the ill-fated 1913 Canadian Arctic Expedition and the two men who came to define it.In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world's greatest living ice navigator. The expedition's visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame.Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again.Twenty-two men and an Inuit woman with two small daughters now stood on a mile-square ice floe, their ship and their original leader gone. Under Bartlett's leadership they built make-shift shelters, surviving the freezing darkness of Polar night. C
£999.99
Holt McDougal In the Shadow of the Mountain
Book SynopsisIn climbing the Seven Summits, Silvia Vasquez-Lavado did nothing less than take back her own lifeone brave step at a time. She will inspire untold numbers of souls with this story, for her victory is a win on behalf of all of us.Elizabeth GilbertEndless ice. Thin air. The threat of dropping into nothingness thousands of feet below. This is the climb Silvia Vasquez-Lavado braves in her page-turning, pulse-raising memoir chronicling her journey to Mount Everest.A Latina hero in the elite macho tech world of Silicon Valley, privately, she was hanging by a thread. Deep in the throes of alcoholism, hiding her sexuality from her family, and repressing the abuse she'd suffered as a child, she started climbing. Something about the brute force required for the ascentthe risk and spirit and sheer size of the mountains and death's close proximitywoke her up. She then took her biggest pain as a survivor to the biggest mountain: Everest.The Mother of the World, as
£999.99
WW Norton & Co Mercury Rising John Glenn John Kennedy and the
Book SynopsisA riveting history of the epic orbital flight that put America back into the space race.Trade Review"[Mercury Rising] brings Glenn’s story alive again with both nostalgia and a riveting, fast-paced narrative ... Shesol does an excellent job of embedding Glenn's story into the wider Cold War context." -- Douglas Brinkley - Washington Post"The perfect book for anyone who wants to read about real life adventures and learn what makes heroes tick ... It will help you understand how some families stay together in the face of existential challenges, how American politics and industrial technology converge, and how the United States won the Cold War competition with the USSR." -- Walter Clemens - New York Journal of Books"What a fresh and refreshing look at a familiar subject, now seen through an important geo-political lens rather than a scientific, technological, and nationalistic one. The new context is exciting, the usual characters made more vivid and dimensional. Bravo." -- Ken Burns"I loved this book. From the opening lines, I was riveted—I couldn’t put it down. Even though we know the ending, Jeff Shesol somehow creates a cliffhanger—immersive history that lifts us out of the moment we’re in and transports us to a time of genuine heroes. As this book reveals, John Glenn—stoic and selfless, but also restless and ambitious—embodies what we hold most dear about being American." -- Matt Damon"If there’s such a thing as a white-knuckle read, this is it. But Mercury Rising is a twofer. Jeff Shesol interweaves heart-racing renderings of the dread and adrenaline of the earliest space flights with keen analysis of the geopolitical rivalry that drove the arc and pace of the space race. John Glenn emerges as both homespun hero and Cold War cat’s-paw, as well as a flesh-and-blood human being—and one hell of a pilot." -- David M. Kennedy, professor of history emeritus, Stanford University, winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for History"This is a story for the ages—the best account, ever, of the flight of Friendship 7. Shesol presents the Mercury Seven and their storied competition in a fresh and even provoking new light. Brilliantly researched and written, Mercury Rising is the book to read on the Cold War collaboration between John Kennedy and John Glenn." -- Kris Stoever, author, with her father, Scott Carpenter, of For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of an Astronaut"I had the privilege of knowing John Glenn well—I helped select him and train him as an astronaut—and Jeff Shesol has rendered the most compelling portrait I’ve seen of Glenn since the real thing. This gripping book captures the fast pace and high stakes of the space program and shows how Glenn helped win the struggle to surpass the Russians." -- Robert Voas, astronaut training officer, Project Mercury"This book amazed me. It brought back such memories that I felt like I was reliving the events." -- Jerry Roberts, guidance and control systems engineer, Projects Mercury and Gemini"Entertaining and deeply researched…readers will savor the hair-raising ride." -- Publishers Weekly"A welcome retelling of a significant piece of the Cold War saga and the opening of the space frontier [and] a good choice for readers interested in the Cold War, the space race, and the 1960s American political landscape." -- Kirkus Reviews"This well-researched and exciting read is recommended for those interested in the history of the space race or the Cold War." -- Dave Pugl - Library Journal"Shesol chronicles the early days of the space program with a historian’s attention to detail and a novelist’s flair for interesting storytelling." -- Gary Day - Booklist
£21.84
WW Norton & Co Mercury Rising
Book SynopsisA riveting history of the epic orbital flight that put America back into the space race.Trade Review"[Mercury Rising] brings Glenn’s story alive again with both nostalgia and a riveting, fast-paced narrative ... Shesol does an excellent job of embedding Glenn's story into the wider Cold War context." -- Douglas Brinkley - Washington Post"The perfect book for anyone who wants to read about real life adventures and learn what makes heroes tick ... It will help you understand how some families stay together in the face of existential challenges, how American politics and industrial technology converge, and how the United States won the Cold War competition with the USSR." -- Walter Clemens - New York Journal of Books"What a fresh and refreshing look at a familiar subject, now seen through an important geo-political lens rather than a scientific, technological, and nationalistic one. The new context is exciting, the usual characters made more vivid and dimensional. Bravo." -- Ken Burns"I loved this book. From the opening lines, I was riveted—I couldn’t put it down. Even though we know the ending, Jeff Shesol somehow creates a cliffhanger—immersive history that lifts us out of the moment we’re in and transports us to a time of genuine heroes. As this book reveals, John Glenn—stoic and selfless, but also restless and ambitious—embodies what we hold most dear about being American." -- Matt Damon"If there’s such a thing as a white-knuckle read, this is it. But Mercury Rising is a twofer. Jeff Shesol interweaves heart-racing renderings of the dread and adrenaline of the earliest space flights with keen analysis of the geopolitical rivalry that drove the arc and pace of the space race. John Glenn emerges as both homespun hero and Cold War cat’s-paw, as well as a flesh-and-blood human being—and one hell of a pilot." -- David M. Kennedy, professor of history emeritus, Stanford University, winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for History"This is a story for the ages—the best account, ever, of the flight of Friendship 7. Shesol presents the Mercury Seven and their storied competition in a fresh and even provoking new light. Brilliantly researched and written, Mercury Rising is the book to read on the Cold War collaboration between John Kennedy and John Glenn." -- Kris Stoever, author, with her father, Scott Carpenter, of For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of an Astronaut"I had the privilege of knowing John Glenn well—I helped select him and train him as an astronaut—and Jeff Shesol has rendered the most compelling portrait I’ve seen of Glenn since the real thing. This gripping book captures the fast pace and high stakes of the space program and shows how Glenn helped win the struggle to surpass the Russians." -- Robert Voas, astronaut training officer, Project Mercury"This book amazed me. It brought back such memories that I felt like I was reliving the events." -- Jerry Roberts, guidance and control systems engineer, Projects Mercury and Gemini"Entertaining and deeply researched…readers will savor the hair-raising ride." -- Publishers Weekly"A welcome retelling of a significant piece of the Cold War saga and the opening of the space frontier [and] a good choice for readers interested in the Cold War, the space race, and the 1960s American political landscape." -- Kirkus Reviews"This well-researched and exciting read is recommended for those interested in the history of the space race or the Cold War." -- Dave Pugl - Library Journal"Shesol chronicles the early days of the space program with a historian’s attention to detail and a novelist’s flair for interesting storytelling." -- Gary Day - Booklist
£14.24
Mariner Books The Viking Heart
Book Synopsis“An absorbing and humane account . . . Mr. Herman is at pains to remind us that the Viking world was never just a stage for mayhem. It was, he says, ‘about daring to reach for more than the universe had gifted you, no matter the odds and the obstacles.’ In short: We might all take our own life’s cue from the Viking heart.”—The Wall Street JournalFrom a New York Times best-selling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist, a sweeping epic of how the Vikings and their descendants have shaped history and America Scandinavia has always been a world apart. For millennia Norwegians, Danes, Finns, and Swedes lived a remote and rugged existence among the fjords and peaks of the land of the midnight sun. But when they finally left their homeland in search of opportunity, these wanderers—including the most famous, the Vikings—would reshape Europe and beyond. Their ingenuity, daring, resiliency, and
£24.00
Random House USA Inc Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes
Book SynopsisAt the heart of this landmark collection of essays rests a single question: What impact, good or bad, immediate or long-range, did Lewis and Clark’s journey have on the Indians whose homelands they traversed? The nine writers in this volume each provide their own unique answers; from Pulitzer prize-winner N. Scott Momaday, who offers a haunting essay evoking the voices of the past; to Debra Magpie Earling’s illumination of her ancestral family, their survival, and the magic they use to this day; to Mark N. Trahant’s attempt to trace his own blood back to Clark himself; and Roberta Conner’s comparisons of the explorer’s journals with the accounts of the expedition passed down to her. Incisive and compelling, these essays shed new light on our understanding of this landmark journey into the American West.
£15.30
National Geographic Society Beyond Possible
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£24.00
National Geographic Society Never Give Up
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£22.40
Simon & Schuster The Explorers A Story of Fearless Outcasts
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£17.09
Time Warner Trade Publishing The Lost City of the Monkey God
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£16.99
Arcadia Publishing (SC) Dude Ranching in Wyoming Images of America
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£21.24
Arcadia Publishing Dude Ranching in Arizona Images of America
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£21.24
GLOBAL PUBLISHER SERVICES CAPTAIN WILLIAM HILTON THE FOUNDING OF
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£18.69
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The 50 Greatest Explorers in History
Book SynopsisThis is a book about one of the first recorded pilgrims who climbed Mount Sinai; it's about Amelia Earhart, the famous American aviator whose story and disappearance continues to capture the world's imagination. It's the story of a doomed expedition to discover the North West Passage, and the tale of Marco Polo, who remained at the court of the Kublai Khan for an incredible 17 years. 'Great Explorers' brings to life the pioneers in aviation flying thousands of miles with the most basic of maps in open cock-pits, exposed to the elements and the unrelenting smell of petrol fumes. They travel by steamboat, on horse-back, by rickshaw, motorbike, train, swim with piranhas, embark into black nothingness in new space craft, explore by jeep, yachts, tea boats and elephants, disguise themselves as men, take canoes and use innovative, advanced technological scuba equipment. Going where in many cases, no man or woman had ever gone before, some women featured in 'Great Explorers' were often denied respect, acknowledgement or recognition and they determined to break the 'mens club' mentality of global exploration from which they were excluded. Marco Polo: "This desert is reported to be so long that it would take a year to go from end to end; and at the narrowest point it takes a month to cross it. It consists entirely of mountains and sands and valleys. There is nothing at all to eat."
£24.32
Grand Central Publishing Fighting for Space: Two Pilots and Their Historic
Book SynopsisSpaceflight historian Amy Shira Teitel tells the riveting story of the female pilots who each dreamed of being the first American woman in space. When the space age dawned in the late 1950s, Jackie Cochran held more propeller and jet flying records than any pilot of the twentieth century—man or woman. She had led the Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots during the Second World War, was the first woman to break the sound barrier, ran her own luxury cosmetics company, and counted multiple presidents among her personal friends. She was more qualified than any woman in the world to make the leap from atmosphere to orbit. Yet it was Jerrie Cobb, twenty-five years Jackie's junior and a record-holding pilot in her own right, who finagled her way into taking the same medical tests as the Mercury astronauts. The prospect of flying in space quickly became her obsession. While the American and international media spun the shocking story of a 'woman astronaut' program, Jackie and Jerrie struggled to gain control of the narrative, each hoping to turn the rumored program into their own ideal reality—an issue that ultimately went all the way to Congress. This dual biography of audacious trailblazers Jackie Cochran and Jerrie Cobb presents these fascinating and fearless women in all their glory and grit, using their stories as guides through the shifting social, political, and technical landscape of the time.
£16.19
PublicAffairs Treasured: How Tutankhamun Shaped a Century
Book Synopsis
£24.00
Amazon Publishing Feral: Losing Myself and Finding My Way in
Book SynopsisA bracing memoir about self-discovery, liberating escape, and moving forward across an adventurous and volatile American landscape. One year. One national park at a time. This is it. No more California. I’m sifting into the underbelly of where the nomads go. After a decade as an assistant to high-powered LA executives, Emily Pennington left behind her structured life and surrendered to the pull of the great outdoors. With a tight budget, meticulous routing, and a temperamental minivan she named Gizmo, Emily embarked on a yearlong road trip to sixty-two national parks, hell-bent on a single goal: getting through the adventure in one piece. She was instantly thrust into more chaos than she’d bargained for and found herself on an unpredictable journey rocked by a gutting romantic breakup, a burgeoning pandemic, wildfires, and other seismic challenges that threatened her safety, her sanity, and the trip itself. What began as an intrepid obsession soon evolved into a life-changing experience. Navigating the tangle of life’s unexpected sucker punches, Feral invites readers along on Emily’s grand, blissful, and sometimes perilous journey, where solitude, resilience, self-reliance, and personal transformation run wild.Trade Review“The author’s unflinching honesty and the boldness of her inner and outer journeys are the two great strengths of a book…[that] succeeds in offering a moving portrait of a woman who came into her own by learning to let go.…Fierce, candid reading.” —Kirkus Reviews “Pennington lyrically describes the wonders of the natural world, and she examines her solo life on the road with unsentimental insight. Readers will relish this hopeful portrayal of personal growth.” —Publishers Weekly “In this visceral memoir, travel writer Pennington depicts a year devoted to visiting 62 U.S. national parks…Pennington’s story of personal growth is told with unflinching insight and immense awe at the natural wonders she encounters; her expressive storytelling is sure to engage and inspire readers.” —Booklist “We can only aspire to the curiosity, pluck, and delight exhibited in Emily Pennington’s Feral despite the boulders and storms life might have tumbled at her.” —Nick Offerman, author of Where the Deer and the Antelope Play and Paddle Your Own Canoe “Emily peels back the superficial layers of van life with unflinching honesty to reveal the beautifully frustrating reality that is life on the road, while also gifting readers with important epiphanies set in our beloved national parks. This is a must read for anyone who values public land, our environment, and compelling storytelling.” —Craig Grossi, author of Craig & Fred and Second Chances “Please read Emily Pennington’s brilliantly written story about her year visiting our national parks. It is filled with the savage beauty, historical depth, and existential joy nature has to share with all of us. Do not miss this extraordinary adventure.” —Lyn Lear, Emmy-nominated filmmaker and environmental activist “Self-improvement, but also connection. The rush of new challenges, but also the tranquility of quiet moments. Emily Pennington travels for all the right reasons, and we’re so lucky she’s brought us along on the adventure of a lifetime.” —Sebastian Modak, editor-at-large at Lonely Planet and former New York Times 52 Places Traveler “Emily’s vivid memoir is for anyone seeking what could be, rather than accepting what is. Her national park journey is a testament to life-changing relationships, finding oneself, and the transformative power of the outdoors.” —Heather Balogh Rochfort, adventure journalist and author of Women Who Hike “Emily was facing major obstacles as she set out on a huge adventure to visit every US national park, from a breakup to the onset of COVID-19. In an awesome Eat, Pray, Love approach to the natural world, she sets out on the adventure of a lifetime, dodging grizzly bears and hiking in some of the world’s remotest places. There’s no one I’d rather go on this journey with.” —Mary Turner, deputy editor, Outside magazine “Emily Pennington knows America’s park system better than most people know their own backyards—it is a privilege to get an intimate glimpse of how that relationship has shaped her.” —Megan Spurrell, senior editor at Condé Nast Traveler “On paper, a plan to visit all sixty-two US national parks in one year sounds like a fun trip—what makes Feral an adventure story worth reading, though, is everything that wasn’t in the plan.” —Brendan Leonard, author of The Camping Life and Sixty Meters to Anywhere “A timely travel memoir that melds together stories of our national park system and the author’s life. This is a book about themes that touch us all: exploration, discovery, and home. Packed with vivid details and brutal honesty, to read Feral is to know Emily.” —Abigail Wise, digital managing director, Outside magazine
£18.99
BookBaby Once Upon a Shelter
£15.29
£32.79
Arte Publico Press,U.S. The Account: Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca's Relacion: Aalvar Nauanez Cabeza De Vaca's Relaciaon / Tr. [from Spanish] by Martin A.Favata.
£12.90
Farcountry Press Heroes of the Bob Marshall Wilderness
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£17.05
Farcountry Press Along the Trail with Lewis & Clark: A Guide to
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£18.00
Temple University Press,U.S. Forgotten Conquests: Rereading New World History
Book SynopsisBorrowing from the old adage, we might say that to the victor belongs the history. One of the privileges gained in colonizing the New World was the power to tell the definitive stories of the struggle. The heroic texts depicting the discovery of territories, early encounters with indigenous peoples, and the ultimate subjection of land and cultures to European nation-states all but erase the vanquished. In Forgotten Conquests, Gustavo Verdesio argues that these master narratives represent only one of many possible histories and suggests a way of reading them in order to discover the colonial subjects who did not produce documents. Verdesio read the key texts relating to the struggles for possession of River Plate's northern shore -- present-day Uruguay. He probes them for traces of conflicts in meaning and the agency of Amerindians, gauchos, Africans, and women -- the subjected peoples that the texts try to silence. The narrators, speaking for their culture, assume the role of knowing subject, repressing all other voices, epistemologies, and acts of resistance. Verdesio's tasks are to listen for those that the Europeans represented as an unintelligible Other, to draw them into the foreground, and to decolonize their histories. By unpacking these texts, Verdesio shows that from the European point of view, the colonial encounter draws the New World into historical time and ushers in a new concept of knowledge. For the first time, the historian's role is to discover, to interpret eyewitness testimonies and first-hand experience, to write 'a new history of admirable things.' Even in this reconstruction of historical truth, Old World ideology drives the narratives, whose chief purpose is to justify conquest. Forgotten Conquests lays bare the discursive strategies that generated the founding texts of Latin American history and engulfed its subjected peoples in silence for 500 years.Trade Review"This is a richly documented study of a much neglected period in the history of the River Plate. Verdesio's work brings forth a new field of inquiry-the Amerindian occupation of the territory that is now Uruguay. It offers a provocative and timely critical view of Uruguay's historiography." -Sara Castro-Klaren, Professor of Latin American Culture and Literature at The Johns Hopkins University "[A] persuasive deconstruction of European narratives in neglected colonial texts about a southeastern region of South America identified today with Uruguay. Traces of Indian, African, gaucho and women voices constitute a 'polyphonic totality' that thwarts original colonialist interpretations of three centuries of textual production." -Alvaro Felix Bolanos, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, University of FloridaTable of ContentsContents Preface Introduction 1. The Entrance to Historical Time 2. Years of Disappointment, or The Long European Siesta 3. The Pacific Penetration 4. Empires in Conflict 5. The Encyclopedias 6. The Tentative Gaze of the Traveler Conclusion: The Territory as the Stage for the Drama of Difference Notes Bibliography Index
£999.99
Temple University Press,U.S. Forgotten Conquests: Rereading New World History
Book SynopsisBorrowing from the old adage, we might say that to the victor belongs the history. One of the privileges gained in colonizing the New World was the power to tell the definitive stories of the struggle. The heroic texts depicting the discovery of territories, early encounters with indigenous peoples, and the ultimate subjection of land and cultures to European nation-states all but erase the vanquished. In Forgotten Conquests, Gustavo Verdesio argues that these master narratives represent only one of many possible histories and suggests a way of reading them in order to discover the colonial subjects who did not produce documents. Verdesio read the key texts relating to the struggles for possession of River Plate's northern shore -- present-day Uruguay. He probes them for traces of conflicts in meaning and the agency of Amerindians, gauchos, Africans, and women -- the subjected peoples that the texts try to silence. The narrators, speaking for their culture, assume the role of knowing subject, repressing all other voices, epistemologies, and acts of resistance. Verdesio's tasks are to listen for those that the Europeans represented as an unintelligible Other, to draw them into the foreground, and to decolonize their histories. By unpacking these texts, Verdesio shows that from the European point of view, the colonial encounter draws the New World into historical time and ushers in a new concept of knowledge. For the first time, the historian's role is to discover, to interpret eyewitness testimonies and first-hand experience, to write 'a new history of admirable things.' Even in this reconstruction of historical truth, Old World ideology drives the narratives, whose chief purpose is to justify conquest. Forgotten Conquests lays bare the discursive strategies that generated the founding texts of Latin American history and engulfed its subjected peoples in silence for 500 years.Trade Review"This is a richly documented study of a much neglected period in the history of the River Plate. Verdesio's work brings forth a new field of inquiry-the Amerindian occupation of the territory that is now Uruguay. It offers a provocative and timely critical view of Uruguay's historiography." -Sara Castro-Klaren, Professor of Latin American Culture and Literature at The Johns Hopkins University "[A] persuasive deconstruction of European narratives in neglected colonial texts about a southeastern region of South America identified today with Uruguay. Traces of Indian, African, gaucho and women voices constitute a 'polyphonic totality' that thwarts original colonialist interpretations of three centuries of textual production." -Alvaro Felix Bolanos, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, University of FloridaTable of ContentsContents Preface Introduction 1. The Entrance to Historical Time 2. Years of Disappointment, or The Long European Siesta 3. The Pacific Penetration 4. Empires in Conflict 5. The Encyclopedias 6. The Tentative Gaze of the Traveler Conclusion: The Territory as the Stage for the Drama of Difference Notes Bibliography Index
£999.99
Kodansha America, Inc Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Secret
Book SynopsisFor nineteenth-century adventures, Tibet was the prize destination, and Lhasa, its capital situated nearly three miles above sea level, was the grandest trophy of all. The lure of this mysterious land, and its strategic importance, made it inevitable that despite the Tibetans’ reluctance to end their isolation, determined travelers from Victorian Britain, Czarist Russia, America, and a half dozen other countries world try to breach the country’s high walls.In this riveting narrative, Peter Hopkirk turns his storytelling skills on the fortune hunters, mystics, mountaineers, and missionaries who tried storming the roof of the world. He also examines how China sought to maintain a presence in Tibet, so that whenever the Great Game ended, Chinese influence would reign supreme. This presence culminated in the Chinese invasion of Tibet in the 1950s, and in a brief afterword, Hopkirk updates his compelling account of "the gatecrashers of Tibet" with a discussion of Tibet today—as a property still claimed and annexed by the Chinese.Trade Review"Hopkirk’s wonderfully vivid book describes the...always thrilling efforts of explorers, spies...to plumb Tibet’s secrets."—Philadelphia Inquirer"Hopkirk handles the storytelling with infectious enthusiasm...[with] great and obvious love for the subject, and is one of those British writers who cannot write an awkward of boring sentence."—Bruse Colman, The San Francisco Chronicle"A lament for a country that, wanting only to be left alone, was hauled unceremoniously into the twentieth century, and is now an unwilling satellite of Communist China."—Richard E. Nicholls, The Philadelphia Inquirer
£14.40
Sasquatch Books Sources of the River, 2nd Edition: Tracking David
Book SynopsisThe awe-inspiring story of explorer David Thompson, whose expeditions helped shape western North AmericaIn this true story of adventure, author Jack Nisbet re-creates the life and times of David Thompson—fur trader, explorer, surveyor, and mapmaker. From 1784 to 1812, Thompson explored western North America, and his field journals provide the earliest written accounts of the natural history and indigenous cultures of the what is now British Columbia, Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Thompson was the first person to chart the entire route of the Columbia river, and his wilderness expeditions have become the stuff of legend. Jack Nisbet tracks the explorer across the content, interweaving his own observations with Thompson’s historical writings. The result is a fascinating story of two men discovering the Northwest territory almost two hundred years apart.Trade Review"Jack Nisbet tells Thompson’s story superbly . . . Sources of the River goes immediately onto my short shelf of best books about the Pacific Northwest." –Murray Morgan
£14.65
Westholme Publishing, U.S. Pedro Gorino: an Autobiographical Narrative
Book SynopsisThe Pedro Gorino was a top-sail schooner purchased in Norway by Captain Harry Dean for use as a merchant ship. Dean, a Philadelphian and descendant of a long line of seafarers, first circumnavigated the globe at age fifteen in 1879 with his uncle. As captain of the Pedro Gorino, Dean continued his family's tradition as an independent trader, sailing to ports around the world. Proud of his free black heritage, he was appalled by the imperialism he encountered while sailing and trading across southern Africa. Swept up in the confusion of the Boer War in the last years of the nineteenth century, Dean saw an opportunity to establish a new African nation that would counter the land-grab of European powers. Portugal was apparently pulling out of southwest Africa and Dean began negotiations with Portuguese officials. Dean envisioned that black Americans would embrace the opportunity to emigrate to Africa and a country of their own. Tantalizingly close to achieving his goal, Dean received little support from home and was ultimately subverted by those he thought were his friends. He was ultimately framed for a crime he did not commit and forced to leave South Africa and his beloved Pedro Gorino forever. As Sterling Lecater Bland, Jr. demonstrates in his new introduction, Pedro Gorino: The Adventures of a Negro Sea-Captain in Africa and on the Seven Seas in His Attempts to Found an Ethiopian Empire, first published in 1929, is both an exciting adventure story and an important record of black internationalism.
£999.99
Westholme Publishing Encountering North America
Book Synopsis
£999.99
Grolier Club of New York Westward the Course of Empire – Exploring and
Book SynopsisIn the nineteenth century, the exploration and settlement of the West exploded. During the 58 years between the Louisiana Purchase and the Civil War, the United States expanded from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, and, in the far West, from the 32nd Parallel to the 49th. By the late 1850s, almost all of these areas had been mapped and explored. Among the many iconic maps featured in this catalogue, which accompanied an exhibition at the Grolier Club, is Lewis and Clark's map of the Northwest. Published in 1814, it remained the standard against which all mapping of that part of North America was measured for decades.Trade Review"This is a fine volume that I am certain will interest map collectors, cartographic historians, and institutional repositories and archives. It is worth embarking on this guided tour through the cartographic history of western North America." * The Portolan *
£999.99
Grolier Club of New York Adventures in Polar Reading – The Book Cultures
Book SynopsisBorrowing from his naval experience and his expertise as a historian, David Stam performed extensive archival and secondary research for this study of the printed needs of several polar expeditions, including those of Adolphus Greely in the International Polar Year 1881–83 in northernmost Canada. Stam analyzes shipboard- and expedition-based periodicals throughout the so-called Heroic Age of exploration (ca. 1880–1921), as well as the enduring books of Ernest Shackleton’s legendary journey aboard the Endurance. In parallel, he examines the primarily religious literature distributed as Loan Libraries of the American Seamen’s Friend Society, including a description of the three libraries assembled by Richard Evelyn Byrd for the successive bases at Little America (1929–41). Stam concludes with suggestions for further research.Trade Review"Stam is a very lively writer, and what could have been a forced march through a topic as potentially barren as the pack ice proves to be quite fertile, providing polar history geeks with an unexpectedly fascinating examination of an aspect of shipboard life that has received insufficient attention.” -- David James * Anchorage Daily News *“No collection of Arctic or Antarctic books worth its salt—or, perhaps I should say, worth its ice—should be without it." * Arctic Book Review *"The Stams' bibliographic expertise has enabled them over time to research in detail. . . An impressive and ground-breaking volume comprehensively covering 'The Book Cultures of High Latitudes'." -- Colin Steele * Biblionews *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsChapter One, Adventures in Polar Writing: The Evolution of This BookChapter Two, “Silent Friends”: Books and Reading on Polar Expeditions(David H. Stam and Deirdre C. Stam)Chapter Three,Libraries on Polar ExpeditionsChapter Four, Arctic Survivals: The Restoration of Records Recovered fromLost Polar Expeditions (John F. Dean and David H. Stam)Chapter Five,Congering the Past:The Books of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1877–1965)Chapter Six,Bending Time: The Function of Periodicals in Nineteenth-CenturyPolar Naval Expeditions (David H. Stam and Deirdre C. Stam)Chapter Seven,New York Times Online: An Historical ExperimentChapter Eight,The Lord’s Librarians: The American Seamen’s Friend Societyand Their Loan Libraries, 1837–1967: An Historical ExcursionChapter Nine,Byrd’s Books: The Antarctic Librariesof Little America, 1928–1941Chapter Ten,The Enduring Books of Shackleton’s Endurance:A Polar Reading Community at SeaChapter Eleven,Quo Vadis? What’s Next?Coda: The Power of PrintAppendicesExpedition Periodicals: A Chronological ListThe American Seamen’s Friend Society Loan LibrariesBooks for the Three Byrd ExpeditionsBooks in Shackleton’s Cabin aboard EnduranceIndex
£999.99
University of Utah Press,U.S. Alone on the Colorado
Book SynopsisHarold Leich set out on a westward journey in the summer of 1933. His travel narrative details his river trip down the Yellowstone River and the first descent by boat of the upper Colorado River from Grand Lake, Colorado, through Cataract Canyon, Utah. He was the first to push through this entire upper section, running rapids that had never known a paddle, rebuilding his kayak along the riverbanks, camping rough, and meeting ranchers and railroad workers in these remote regions. Leich's sudden change of fortune in Cataract Canyon, in the most isolated part of Utah, and his soul searching as he worked his way out of a perilous situation, will speak to anyone who has ventured beyond roads and trails and faced potential tragedy alone.Alone on the Colorado takes readers on the adventure of running rivers and riding the rails, while painting a unique and optimistic portrait of Depression-era America.Trade ReviewLeich has a wonderful, lively style of writing that never gets boring. This book fills an important gap in the river running history of the Colorado. His vivid, first-person account is a great contribution to the overall story of people and rivers. His photographs add to the authenticity of the narrative as well."" - James M. Aton, author of John Wesley Powell: His Life and Legacy""This is not just a river story, though that is the highlight. It also details Depression-era experiences, both urban and rural Leich's tales of riding the rails are fascinating. Besides being an adventure story, it is also a literary work."" - Richard Quartaroli, librarian emeritus, Northern Arizona University, and river runner and historian
£17.56
Chicago Review Press Queen of the Mountaineers: The Trailblazing Life
Book SynopsisFanny Bullock Workman was a complicated and restless woman who defied the rigid Victorian morals she found as restrictive as a corset. With her frizzy brown hair tucked under a helmet, Workman was a force on and off the mountain. Instrumental in breaking the British stranglehold on Himalayan mountain climbing, this American woman climbed more peaks than any of her peers and became the first woman to map the far reaches of the Himalayas and the second to address the Royal Geographic Society of London, whose past members included Charles Darwin, Richard Francis Burton, and David Livingstone. Her books—replete with photographs, illustrations, and descriptions of meteorological conditions, glaciology, and the effect of high altitudes on humans—remained useful decades after their publication. Paving the way for a legion of female climbers, Workman's legacy lives on in scholarship prizes at Wellesley, Smith, Radcliffe, and Bryn Mawr.Author and journalist Cathryn J. Prince brings Fanny Bullock Workman to life, revealing how she navigated the male-dominated world of alpine clubs and adventure societies as nimbly as she navigated the deep crevasses and icy granite walls of the Himalayas. Queen of the Mountaineers is the story of one woman's role in science and exploration, breaking boundaries and charting frontiers for women everywhere.Trade Review"In Queen of the Mountaineers, Cathryn J. Prince transports readers to an era when explorers traversed continents by yak and goatskin boat, when mountains were still unmapped and unmeasured, when climbers braved the elements with rudimentary gear, and when the hard-earned, high-altitude triumphs of those like Fanny Bullock Workman were presented with the caveat the climber was a woman." Carolyn Porter, author of Marcel's Letters"Cathryn J. Prince presents legendary adventurer and climber Fanny Bullock Workman, a fascinating champion for women's rights who resisted expectation and refused to conform to gender roles. Through Fanny's fascinating story, Prince beautifully archives the heights achieved by our foremothers." Ruta Sepetys, author of Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea"This very well researched and written biography brings Fanny's trail-blazing accomplishments to a new generation of climbersboth women and menas well as to armchair mountaineers." Arlene Blum, author of Annapurna: A Woman's Place and Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life"Cathryn J. Prince digs into original journals, manuscripts, and photos to reveal a woman whose ambitions broke boundaries for mountaineers in general and women climbers in particular." Elizabeth Rynecki, author and documentary film director of Chasing Portraits"[This] engaging and rigorously reported account of Fanny Bullock Workman's impressive life invites the reader to follow this brave and restless woman up the world's tallest mountains, both geological and cultural. What a read!" Ben Montgomery, author of Grandma Gatewood's Walk and The Leper Spy" Queen of the Mountaineers will inform scholars and delight mountaineers and armchair travelers with its rich and detailed descriptions of local people, global customs, and the dangers of traveling abroad at the turn of the twentieth century." -- Foreword Reviews
£23.36
Pegasus Books Lawrence of Arabia: My Journey in Search of T. E.
Book Synopsis
£28.80
Chicago Review Press Race to Hawaii: The 1927 Dole Air Derby and the
Book SynopsisRace to Hawaii is the thrilling account of the first flights to Hawaii during the Golden Age of Aviation. The Dole Derby was an unprecedented 1927 air race in which eight planes set off at once across the Pacific, all eager to reach the islands first and claim a cash prize offered by "Pineapple King" James Dole. Military men, barnstormers, a schoolteacher, a Wall Street bond salesman, a Hollywood stunt flyer and veteran World War aces all encountered every type of hazard during their perilous flights. These fearless pilots flew unreliable and fragile aircraft outfitted with primitive air navigation equipment. With so many pilots taking aim at the tiny far-flung islands in so many different types of planes, everyone wondered who would reach Hawaii first, or at all.
£14.20
Astra Publishing House The Bathysphere Book: First Sight of the Ocean
Book SynopsisA gorgeous account of William Beebe's 1934 Bathysphere expedition, the first-ever deep-sea voyage to the otherworldly environment 3,024 feet below sea level. In the summer of 1934, aboard a ship floating near the Atlantic island of Nonsuch, marine biologist Gloria Hollister sat on a crate, writing furiously in a notebook with a telephone receiver pressed to her ear. The phone line attached to a steel cable that unrolled off the side of the vessel and plunged into the sea, sinking 3000 feet. There, suspended by the cable, dangled a four-and-a-half-foot steel ball called the bathysphere. Crumpled up inside, gazing through three-inch quartz windows at the undersea world, sat Hollister's colleague William Beebe. He called up to her excitedly, describing bizarre creatures, explosions of bioluminescence, and strange effects of light and color. Hollister, listening amid rocking waves, tried to get down everything she heard. The story of The Bathysphere Book springs from the original expedition logbooks-the first eyewitness account of the deep ocean. They possess a strange poetry, scientific vocabulary shot through with the thrill of the new, and an erotic charge due to the illicit affair Hollister and Beebe were carrying on. The expedition launched from an expansive, transforming America, as streetlights came on in New York City and the Great Plains baked to dust. Backers ranged from eugenicist conservatives to billionaire socialists, while the expedition staff was a ragtag team of eccentrics who socialized with iconic figures of the period, such as Theodore Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, and Gypsy Rose Lee. The bathysphere was the subject of much media attention and made the team famous. Prefiguring NASA's blue marble photograph, the first images of the deep ocean offered a new sense of the planetary. The book will include archival images as well as a few reproductions of illustrations by expedition artists. The Bathysphere Book delights in the human drama that surrounds this groundbreaking move into the deep ocean, a story of one visionary encounter with the unknown.Trade Review"The Bathysphere Book is wonderful, in the literal sense: filled with wonder. Brad Fox illuminates the extraordinary discoveries of the ocean depths, to be sure, but also of the scientists and artists who first explored them, less than a century ago. To read this glorious and beautifully illustrated account-relayed with what its protagonist William Beebe called 'the oblique glance', the wisdom that everything is connected-is to feel again a child's awed delight at human ingenuity, and at our planet." -Claire Messud, author of The Emperor's Children and A Dream Life "What is this sublime, remarkable book? It's a black unreadable eye sliding past a submarine window, it's a color on an alien spectrum, it's a fish made of filaments and lit by its own light. I don't know what it is, I only know that it's luminous." -Shelley Jackson, author of The Melancholy of Anatomy and Riddance "Brad Fox has created a brilliant work of literary art-at once almanac and seance, wonder-cabinet and hallucinogen. The vigor, pluck, and compression of his language turn a linear chronicle into a time-bending, gem-laden constellation, with surprising flashes of wit, gossip, and melodrama." -Wayne Koestenbaum, author of Ultramarine and The Cheerful Scapegoat "Brad Fox knows that the descent into the deep meant a sea-change not just in science, but in aesthetics, philosophy, the sense of what it is to be human. All have been changed, become rich and strange, as this rich, strange book shows so beautifully." -China Mieville, author of The City in the City and This Census-Taker
£22.50
