A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America

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A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 3,491 ratings · 591 reviews

W hat happened in North America between Columbus's sail in 1492 and the Pilgrims' arrival in 1620?

On a visit to Plymouth Rock, Tony Horwitz realizes he doesn't have a clue, nor do most Americans. So he sets off across the continent to rediscover the wild era when Europeans first roamed the New World in quest of gold, glory, converts, and eternal youth. Horwitz tells the st...more

Paperback, 464 pages

Published April 27th 2009 by Picador (first published January 1st 2008)

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Sep 10, 2008 Joshua rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Every school kid is taught that Columbus "discovered" America in 1492 and that the Pilgrims stepped onto a rock in 1620, but what happened in between? To shed light on the American "Dark Ages," Tony Horwitz follows the trails, literally by car, blazed by the Vikings, Spanish, French and English explorers and exploiters. He is a very entertaining writer with a touch of sarcasm that is used to debunk the myths we were taught in school.

I liked how he hit the road and dug up folks along the sixteent...more

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Jul 30, 2008 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In this work Horwitz fills in the gaping chasm of knowledge we have regarding the exploration of North America by Europeans. Columbus' first landing on his first (of four) voyages WAS incredibly important. So were excursions by the Erikson family, de Leon, da Vaca, Coronado, de Soto and a host of others.

Any person with a shred of interest in American history MUST read this book. Like all Horwitz' work, it is carefully researched and winningly told. He employs his customary method of telling fir...more In this work Horwitz fills in the gaping chasm of knowledge we have regarding the exploration of North America by Europeans. Columbus' first landing on his first (of four) voyages WAS incredibly important. So were excursions by the Erikson family, de Leon, da Vaca, Coronado, de Soto and a host of others.

Any person with a shred of interest in American history MUST read this book. Like all Horwitz' work, it is carefully researched and winningly told. He employs his customary method of telling first an historical narrative and then of his own travels through the same territory. He shares his insights into human nature with wry and gentle humor. He teaches history with passion.

I think I would love to share a couple of beers with Tony Horwitz in any of the hundreds of places he has taken me in the half-dozen or so of his books I have read.

I know American history. That is, I know the history of what now goes by the name of the U.S.A. from the years 1620 to the present. I actually have a minor in Colonial History from a major University. I confess that I knew virtually nothing more than the names of the incredible people who populate A Voyage Long and Strange. They deserve to be known.

A few episodes from Horwitz' book that I hope might tease others into reading the whole of it:
The Spanish soldier who, having reached the center of today's Kansas after an epic journey under Coronado from central Mexico, wrote in his diary of laying down on the grass of the Great Plains and losing all sense of being in a space that had any limits at all.

The beautiful Lady of Cofitachequi (in today's North Carolina), who greeted de Soto and his men by standing naked in a canoe oared across a river by her servant men.

The precise spot Erikson and company spent a summer Newfoundland more than a thousand years ago. (It was surprising to me that archeologists agree on this site without reservation.)

Da Vaca's account of drifting, starving, in a raft across the Gulf Coast and crossing the mouth of the Mississippi.

The desperate and sad attempts of the modern Dominican Republic's government to generate tourist revenue through the promotion of their long list of "firsts" (first surviving European town in the hemisphere, first school, first hospital, first baby born to a European woman, etc.)

Mike Riggins
mike@northernlakescc.org(less)

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Jun 04, 2008 Jesse rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Early America is weird. There are lots of lost people, lots of cannibalism, vanished expeditions, cities of gold, and a whole lot of maltreatment of natives. Horwitz's history-tourism stuff is always fun and entertaining, and he somehow manages to hook up with a good bunch of cranks and nutsos to track the story's ramifications to the present vividly. This probably works best in Confederates in the Attic, where he's tracking the resonances of the Civil War, and thus the story isn't even over yet...more

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Oct 19, 2011 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-read, history, history-travels, lives-of-people, maritime, native-american, new-england, non-fiction, true-crime

I love Tony Horowitz and this genre that I term "history travels", where he writes about a historical subject and travels the present-day locales in search of its legacy. Here he looks at the exploration and settlement of the US by Europeans, prior to the Pilgrims' 1620 arrival at Plymouth. As with Horowitz's other works, I enjoy his recounting of the history, how he fills in my sketchy knowledge of our continent's early explorers in a highly readable fashion. I also enjoy his accounts of his cu...more

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Feb 22, 2009 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the 2nd Tony Horwitz book I've read; Confederates in the Attic was great, so I thought I'd give this a try. I really enjoyed it. Although, I did read this while sitting next to a pool in Puerto Vallarta in early January sipping many margaritas, so perhaps that's why I was laughing. Anyway, I would totally recommend reading this while having drinks.

So, in this book Tony has discovered he knows nothing about discoverers... those guys that wandered around what is now the United States mainl...more

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Jan 15, 2009 Kendra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't love the end conclusion to this book... it was pretty basic and I guess I expected more. BUT, it's a fabulously interesting tale of the true discovery(s) of America. I loved that the author, a journalist, actually followed the trails of the various Norse, conquistadors, and other explorers who came to our continent before it was truly settled by white outsiders. The things the conquistadors endured were incredible! And the slaughter they rendered on natives, well, brutal is an understat...more

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May 17, 2013 wmvdbiii rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A summary of exploration of North America, starting with the Vikings and ending with Jamestown and Plymouth Rock. A major stated goal is to fill in the pre-English history of European exploration and colonization. He's read an impressive amount on these subjects and he presents his findings with a fine but very lightly imposed discrimination. He's good at ferreting out the hype and the possible alternative interpretations. He intersperses each chapter with his own travel narrative exploring part...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am a big Tony Horwitz fan. I might have enjoyed A Voyage Long and Strange more if I had not read Baghdad Without a Map first. That book was such a delight. So hilarious, and the tone reeked. Confederates in the Attic, in which Horwitz explores the culture of Civil War reenacters, was pretty entertaining, also.

Tony Horwitz writes nonfiction with a flair. So does his wife, Geraldine Brooks. A friend tells me that her Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women is "fabulous." They are...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Rhonda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

As others have mentioned in their reviews, Horwitz cannot decide whether he is writing a travel book or a history book. He does, however, explain exactly how he came to write the book and the real wonder is that the rest of us haven't done the same thing. While I didn't find any of the history truly eye-opening, it was sometimes more than interesting. Although, I disagreed with his absolute conclusions, one should ask oneself how, in any given history, certain things rise to the top to be rememb...more As others have mentioned in their reviews, Horwitz cannot decide whether he is writing a travel book or a history book. He does, however, explain exactly how he came to write the book and the real wonder is that the rest of us haven't done the same thing. While I didn't find any of the history truly eye-opening, it was sometimes more than interesting. Although, I disagreed with his absolute conclusions, one should ask oneself how, in any given history, certain things rise to the top to be remembered.

Having grown up in Virginia, and laudatory Virginia history was forced down our throats at every turn, we knew that we had beaten the Pilgrims to the new world. I recall that as a fourth grader, a few of us argued vociferously with our teacher about certain facts. What were the facts? They were the details concerning the early settlement of Jamestown which we had learned the year before. SInce our present book diverged from what we "knew" it was clearly incorrect.

The oddity of this is that it represents not only how children learn, but how adults often reason also. The point is that what you are introduced to early in life seems to stick with you as fact. I recall having undergraduates argue with me on a particular subject using a solitary book they had cursorily read during a survey course a year or so previous. Perhaps it is true of the human mind that we find it uncomfortable not to establish some definitive idea about particular concepts we learn about, no matter what the sources. Those ideas, in turn, becomes increasingly unwilling to change as time goes on. Perhaps, too, we just like generalizations about things that fit into our lives conveniently, but as usual, I am digressing.

With this said, this book is well researched. The most cogent point he makes is that it is difficult to judge people long ago by our present views, but sadly that is what we are inclined to do. I doubt that many of us would have lasted long under the command of any of these adventurers had we been questioning what we thought the right thing to do was. If nothing else, this book fills in a lot of gaps in the average person's grasp of New World history and I don't doubt many will be surprised by some of the great details. Moreover, many will be enamored of Howitz' style. I am not one of them, alas.

Still the title says it all: Horwitz has written an often amusing tale about what we might not know....and how very strange much of it seems to us today. It's worth reading just to get you to wrestle with your own mind a bit and, as long as you don't simply assume that you know better than the author, I predict, with almost absolute certainty, you will.(less)

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Nov 01, 2011 Talia Carner rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Haunting Journey into the Past
Tony Horwitz's "A Voyage Long and Strange" is a wonderfully told mix of historical facts and myths revisited by a modern-day adventurer. As he explores the roots of America's discovery and colonization, he does so with engaging prose and lively descriptions that bring to life not only the many forgotten chapters of America's history, but also its today's physical landscape.

Challenged by his quest to reshape the historical narrative of the Vikings, Conquistadors,...more

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Jul 30, 2011 James (JD) Dittes added it

While I love traveling, I usually hate travelogues. I don't like writers who make fun of locals, or fit every sight into a personal agenda; I don't read to learn about writers--I want to learn about sites.

Tony Horwitz is one of the best writers at teaching. His trips fit into an agenda--usually an historical one--and his bibliography is incredible. In Voyage, Horwitz sets off to learn about America's pre-Pilgrim history--the reality before our founding myths of Thanksgiving and Indian brotherhoo...more

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May 23, 2011 Spencer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

While visiting Plymouth Rock in New England, the author realizes that, while he knows about Columbus in 1492, Jamestown Settlement in 1607 and the Mayflower in 1620, he knows absolutely nothing about the history of America in the 100+ years between those events. Do you know what happened in North America during this period? I certainly didn't. This book is a travelogue/history that attempts to fill in the missing details of that unknown century, as the author traverses great portions of the coun...more

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Nov 14, 2010 James Mitchell rated it 4 of 5 stars

My wife picked this up as a quick read at an airport and tossed it at me when she got back saying "You might like this". A year later I finally pick it up looking for something lighter than the theoretical tome I just finished and boy, did I like it. This is one of my favorite styles of writing: historical facts blended with personal anecdotes and adventures. While he relates the various renditions on "who discovered America", he travels to those destinations to see how the modern residents deal...more

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Aug 26, 2010 Dustin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Let me just say, I actually listened to this. For some reason the voice changes in the last chapter. I'm not sure it is still the author reading.
Anyway, Horwitz main thesis is that American history glosses over centuries of New World explorers in favor of a Pilgrim founding. Now, I'm not sure how the rest of the country is taught, but being educated in Virginia, I feel like I have always known damn well that America started with Jamestown. The Pilgrims were a mere afterthought, good for recogni...more

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Aug 21, 2010 Bruce rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excellent! I was a bit alienated by the mixing of history and contemporary travel but the combination worked and is an exceptional discourse on the comedy that is homo sapiens and homo sapiens' society, in particular what we might laughingly call American society.

This is at once about arrogance and the diverseness of liberty taken to destructively constructively ends. It has just the right amount of proper disrespect for false authority, of which there is a stupendous amount in the folklore and...more

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Mar 09, 2010 Kat Hagedorn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, non-fiction

http://tinyurl.com/5ro2gn

Horwitz is a mix between Bill Bryson and Ken Davis (author of "Don't Know Much About History"). He's amusing like Bryson, but develops his thesis like Davis. That being to show how little most of us know about who was "first" to America. You thought it was the Plymouth folk? They just got the best P.R.

I'll admit the section about De Soto and Coronado's travels were a bit dull. I mean, they travelled across the dusty Southwest or the swampy South ad infinitum. And the nam...more

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Jan 27, 2010 Joshua rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

Wildly swinging reviews--the one star of Philip Roth's The Humbling to the five star treatment for Tony Horwitz's A Voyage Long and Strange. I don't give very many ones or fives so this is kind of odd going back to back with these two.

I'd read Horwitz's Confederates In the Attic years and years ago and really loved it (all about Civil War re-enactors and their ilk) but hadn't seen any new books by him. What a mistake by me to not see what else he's written. This book has so much stuff I'm into i...more

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Oct 07, 2009 Rich rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, memoirs, travel, science

When journalist Tony Horwitz saw Plymouth Rock on a visit to the town of Plymouth, Mass., he was struck by how small it was. He asked a park ranger nearby--yes a park ranger, if you can believe it--some questions, and went home chuckly about some of the silly notions people had about the Pilgrims--a term that didn't come into common use until sometime in the 19th century--and the discovery and settling of America. But as he began rummaging around in his own memory he was surprised that although...more

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Sep 05, 2009 Don rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A combination brief history and travel book, Horwitz visits the significant places of the European exploration and settlement of the United States prior to the Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth, finishing up at Plymouth itself.

As a history, this book is pretty basic; if you have done any reading in this area, there won't be much here that you're not already familiar with. The travel part of the book isn't much either; it mostly focuses on the myths that contemporary Americans hold about the origins...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

Horwitz has a knack for insightful, quirky, topical treatments of his subjects, and A Voyage Long and Strange is vintage stuff, recalling the pace and the scope of Horwitz's earlier books and reaffirming that the author has never met a character or a situation that he couldn't transform into an engaging story (witness tales of a visit to a sweat lodge in Newfoundland and a weapons reenactment reminiscent of a scene from Confederates in the Attic). Though critics find Horwitz entertaining, severa

...more

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Jul 12, 2010 Steve Betz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

One of the B-list holidays in America is Columbus Day – celebrating (or not) the “discovery” of the New World by the intrepid Italian-sailing-for-Spain navigator a mere 518 years ago. Every American school child knows that “in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue…” and a few weeks after Columbus Day, we all celebrate Thanksgiving with turkey and corn and decorations of guys in funny hats with buckles on them – commemorating the “First Thanksgiving” celebrated by the Pilgrims, Squanto and their p...more One of the B-list holidays in America is Columbus Day – celebrating (or not) the “discovery” of the New World by the intrepid Italian-sailing-for-Spain navigator a mere 518 years ago. Every American school child knows that “in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue…” and a few weeks after Columbus Day, we all celebrate Thanksgiving with turkey and corn and decorations of guys in funny hats with buckles on them – commemorating the “First Thanksgiving” celebrated by the Pilgrims, Squanto and their pals the year after their founding of Plymouth in 1620 – something else that every American school child knows.

But there’s a problem here. There are 128 years between Columbus and the Pilgrims – and most Americans probably can’t tell you anything about the intervening years. Kids in Virginia will tell you about Jamestown being founded in 1607 – though you can guarantee they don’t know that Santa Fe, New Mexico was founded in 1608 --- or that St. Augustine Florida beat them both by 40+ years.

And such is the thesis for a great book I finished reading last month “A Voyage Long and Strange” by Tony Horwitz. In this book, the author tracks down the “missing” history between Columbus and the Pilgrims. He interweaves the history with a sort of odd travelogue where he visits the colonial sites of yore in the present day. In fact, he begins with a trip to Newfoundland and an investigation of the Norse colonies in North America about 500 years BEFORE Columbus.

The book is witty and also sad. Horwitz’ writing captures well that “stranger in a strange land” feeling as he goes across North America in search of the historical truth of this often-neglected era. Along the way, the saddest parts are those in which historical evidence is ignored so that certain myths can be fostered – usually for civic and personal gain.

Almost as remarkable are the forgotten histories of many of the Spanish explorers in the New World --- the most remarkable is probably that of Alvar de Vaca, who’s journey in the New World made the Lewis and Clark Expedition of the 19th century look like a Cub Scout camping trip.

But of course, since Anglophiles write American history books, all this is often ignored to pump up the image of the fearless Captain Smith and Pocahontas of Jamestown (though they probably leave out the cannibalism there in the second harsh winter), and extol the determined, Puritan work-ethic of the Pilgrims also leaving out their own religious persecution of those that disagreed with them.

I encourage everyone that wants a good yarn and to learn a little more about our own history of which we are too willfully ignorant.

Oh – and the first Thanksgiving between Europeans and Native Americans in what is now the US was in Florida and probably consisted of a pesole-like pork stew and corn. Remember that next Thanksgiving!(less)

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Jun 22, 2010 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ventura-county-library, reviewed, popular-nonfiction

A travelogue on the theme of pre-Plymouth European presence in the "New World," from the Vikings to the late-arriving English. Moves back and forth between recounting the history you maybe didn't learn about in school and reporting the author's interactions with the modern-day inhabitants of the various locations visited or settled by colonial Europeans, especially around the various tourist sites related to the colonial era.

An enjoyable read especially for history hobbyists -- those who like t...more

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Feb 09, 2010 Sandie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

This book was recommended by a friend. It was an interesting account of early voyages by white men to what what we call North America, starting with Eirik the Red in Greeenland. Besides the historical aspect, Tony Horwitz makes trips to these places and talks to the 'natives' to show us what the area is like now. The book is very readable. I got bogged down waiting for Samuel de Champlain to name the lake after himself (althought a contemporary of these folks, he never did in this book). I skipp...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Mitch rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biographical, travel, nonfiction

I like Tony Horwitz's writing. I think he does a good job intertwining his trips, research and history reporting in an entertaining way and want to read more of his work.

But-

This book's subject is about early American History and the what the conquistadors and other adventurers did. The list of atrocities they committed in the name of God or Greed is extensive. They were a lot of lying, stealing, torturing, murdering, self-justifying, enslaving, raping, vandalizing, despicable men.

All this done...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Andy Daitsman rated it 3 of 5 stars

Horwitz is an excellent writer who does a great job drawing the reader into the world he depicts. He also has done prodigious research on the subject, but I'm not entirely convinced he gets all the history quite right. And after all the storm and fury, his conclusion is, to say the least, anticlimactic.

A big part of the problem is that the bulk of the book deals with the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and therefore Horwitz spends a great deal of time attempting to explain the motivations of t...more Horwitz is an excellent writer who does a great job drawing the reader into the world he depicts. He also has done prodigious research on the subject, but I'm not entirely convinced he gets all the history quite right. And after all the storm and fury, his conclusion is, to say the least, anticlimactic.

A big part of the problem is that the bulk of the book deals with the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and therefore Horwitz spends a great deal of time attempting to explain the motivations of the Spanish conquistadores -- especially that of those few who operated in the territory of what is now the continental United States. Horwitz, however, does not speak Spanish, and is not even very sympathetic to Spanish culture. This is compounded by a more generalized elitism -- at times, he seems to mock the contemporary people whose lives he briefly shares -- to create an occasionally offputting atmosphere.

In the chapter where he visits the Dominican Republic he manages to reproduce just about every single stereotype of the frustrated gringo struggling to survive in Latin America. The weather is hot and humid, the people are unfriendly, everybody is always looking for a bribe, and no one ever gets anything done on time. Ensconced with his ex-pat friends in a downtown bar, they gripe about their uncivilized host society. If Carpentier had never written El recurso del método, or Greene Our Man in Havana or The Honorary Consul, Horwitz might be forgiven. His treatment of Caonabo, who befriended him in Santo Domingo and in a certain sense rescued him, is shameful to the extent I sincerely hope he gave the man a pseudonym.

Just as he doesn't "get" the contemporary Dominican Republic, I very much doubt he "gets" the mental universe of Coronado, de Soto, Cabeza de Vaca, or Ponce de León. He does, however, understand the physical environments those men traveled through, and he does a masterful job describing how those landscapes must have impacted them. The contrast between the historical events and the contemporary societies that have grown up in those places really is the magic of the book, providing insight into the human condition.

His great conclusion, on the other hand, that humans need myths to organize society, is trite beyond belief. He presents this as a discovery he reached in the course of doing research for the book. If that is true, then he must have slept his way through his history major at Columbia University, because that idea really is a founding principle of modern social history.

It's a good read and I learned a few things from it. However, it has very real flaws.(less)

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Aug 15, 2012 Mary Schumann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people interested in American History, myth busters

Recommended to Mary by: Dave Groeninger

Shelves: history, non-fiction

Really liked this. I read it as part of the faculty book discussion group at the college. It was selected by the best history professor there and he always has interesting insights and selections for the group. The book examines the somewhat blank space left by our elementary & high schools in American History. We learn things like "Columbus discovered America" (he never set foot on US soil) and come away with the impression that the pilgrims were the first settlers when in fact they were fa...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Like his previous work (Confederates in the Attic), it was a combination history and personal travelogue. His goal was to explore the expeditions that took place from Columbus to the Pilgrims landfall. His personal journey was to explore not just the history, but also the myths that had arisen from these explorations. The time between Columbus and Plymouth covers a lot of the fits and starts of the exploration and colonization movement. It also covers the slow decent of race relations in America...more

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Jan 19, 2010 Brendan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, audio, non-fiction, history-journalism

What happened in that dark and lonely stretch of years between when Columbus arrived in the "new world" and when the pilgrims "landed" at Plymouth Rock? Tony Horwitz takes us on a travelogue journey of these locations, scouting them and researching them, telling us about their history with a balanced perspective and a hard eye on the truth. Some details:

* The mix of modern day locations with historical research works very well. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on the Dominican Republic in whi...more What happened in that dark and lonely stretch of years between when Columbus arrived in the "new world" and when the pilgrims "landed" at Plymouth Rock? Tony Horwitz takes us on a travelogue journey of these locations, scouting them and researching them, telling us about their history with a balanced perspective and a hard eye on the truth. Some details:

* The mix of modern day locations with historical research works very well. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on the Dominican Republic in which Horwitz tastes a local meat from a street vendor that his local guide later warns him will kill tourists. His conversations with various representatives of long-dead Indian tribes are equally compelling.
* Horwitz tries to keep balance in the sections about the conquistadors, but the long tally of murder, rape, abuse, murder, rape, slavery, rape, murder, and on and on and on makes it hard to admire the men for their bravery in the face of adversity. But the section where he visits an history fair and wears conquistador armor for a day is pretty funny.
* He also underlines the vast importance disease had in helping Europeans gain a foothold in North America. When the English arrived to settle New England, whole villages were deserted because of the plagues sweeping through the populations.
* This isn't a book to read if you value your old timey tourist treasures -- none of them come off very strongly. My favorite old man he revealed behind the curtain was St. Augustine, which claims to be the longest settled town in the modern U.S. Horwitze reminds us that St. Augustine was founded as a temporary base from which the Spanish could root out the French Huguenots living up stream. So to give credit to the Spanish is kinda funny.
* Best line in the book (as best I can recall it), a man discussing why Plymouth (rather than Jamestown) is remembered as the first U.S. settlement to succeed: "Jamestown had too many layabouts too lazy to raise their own food. And nobody wants to remember a city where a man killed his wife and unborn child to eat them."

Horwitz does a fine job with the narration and fills in a sorrowful gap in my early American history knowledge. A decent read.(less)

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Sep 02, 2009 Michael VanZandt rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-history

I came to this book full of expectations and intrigue, after Horwitz's phenomenal pop-historical jaunt through the weirdness of neo-Confederate headlines and Dixie locales in "Confederates in the Attic." The subject of public memory, as its predecessor, is also a topic near and dear to my heart. Reared on James Louwen's "Lies My Teacher Told Me", I was ready to embark full-hearted on a cross-country romp through the misstated facts of American civil mythology. Closing the book for the last time,...more I came to this book full of expectations and intrigue, after Horwitz's phenomenal pop-historical jaunt through the weirdness of neo-Confederate headlines and Dixie locales in "Confederates in the Attic." The subject of public memory, as its predecessor, is also a topic near and dear to my heart. Reared on James Louwen's "Lies My Teacher Told Me", I was ready to embark full-hearted on a cross-country romp through the misstated facts of American civil mythology. Closing the book for the last time, I felt dissatisfied.

Horwitz has an affable, casual nature to his writing style that eliminates from academic scrutiny. It's clearly not intended for that forum. All of his books are casual reads in the mode of Bill Bryson. Do not be fooled; he does his earnest research and aims to enlighten the reader while unraveling an entertaining tale.

Much of what prevents "A Voyage" from becoming the poignant analysis that "Confederates" was is not so much the author but the subject. "Confederates" was such an intriguing read precisely because the Civil War is a uniquely Southern experience which is lived out through current events and the 10 o'clock news nearly a century and a half after its conclusion. For many, that war still remains a primary aspect of American identity, whether African-American, Southern, or the rare Yankee Union-enthusiast. Each chapter provided a snapshot of how the War still lives on. It's far more likely to come across a disillusioned Daughter of the Confederacy than it is a Powhatan Indian these days. Horwitz excels at blending the history with the memory of his contemporaries. In this subject, he clearly has much less with which to work.

In "Voyage", I felt like a conscripted Spanish soldier on a forced march through the stories. Horwitz writes each Spanish trek with as much enthusiasm. In the end, the histories and story-telling lose the vitality that Horwitz had captured in his previous work. The topic itself is one that numbs the reader. Whelp, the Spanish conquistador pillaged another indigenous village; more Indians died from an introduced disease; etc, etc. Horwitz's gavel -- his firm conclusion -- only comes in the closing paragraphs, all the pages beforehand equated to the wasteland that Estevanico faced (actually, very cool story which should be taught). Lost were the themes and imagery which he deftly wove into "Confederates."

Perhaps, it's unfair to compare "Voyage" with his earlier book. Rarely does it provide the insight that one can find in other works. In its own right though this is an enjoyable read that may give one a greater appreciation for pre-Mayflower history on the U.S. continent.(less)

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Aug 04, 2009 Liz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tony Horwitz tells the story of the settling of North America with an eye trained on the oddities that make the ancient and current crop of Americans hilarious when viewed with a jaundiced eye. In a fit of pique, he refuses to start his story with the Pilgrims, instead following the adventures of the Vikings, the Spanish, the French and others who crossed the sea or traversed the southwestern desert and the Florida peninsula in search of gold. (The Vikings didn't seem to be as interested in gold...more

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About Tony Horwitz

Date of Birth: 1958

Tony Horwitz is an American journalist and writer. His works include Blue Latitudes, One for the Road, Confederates In The Attic and Baghdad Without A Map. His most recent work, published in April 2008, is A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World, a history and travelogue dealing with the early European exploration of North America.

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Books by Tony Horwitz

Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before

Baghdad without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia

Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War

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“Finally, in the midst of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November 1863 as Thanksgiving: a day to solemnly acknowledge the sacrifices made for the Union....Shopping was part of the American Dream, too. So in 1939, at the urging of merchants, FDR moved Thanksgiving ahead a week, to lengthen the Christmas shopping season. And there it has remained, a day of national gluttony, retail pageantry, TV football, and remembrance of the Pilgrims, a folk so austere that they regarded Christmas as a corrupt Papist holiday.” — 4 people liked it

“The past was a consumable, subject to the national preference for familiar products. And history, in America, is a dish best served plain. The first course could include a dollop of Italian in 1492, but not Spanish spice or French sauce or too much Indian corn. Nothing too filling or fancy ahead of the turkey and pumpkin pie, just the way Grandma used to cook it.” — 2 people liked it

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title link	preview: A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America
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A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America

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