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The Great Explorers: And Their Journeys of Discovery
Chart the Golden Age of Exploration, from the Vikings to the circumnavigation of the globe. This book is created in collaboration with the Royal Geographic Society.
Covering professional explorers, botanists hunting for undiscovered plants, missionaries spreading Christianity, pioneering women, and the aristocratic and downright eccentric, The Great Explorers takes you to a world still waiting to be discovered. Covering everything from the early Chinese travellers to the first European arrivals in the Americas and beyond, this stunning volume recounts both familiar and unfamiliar voyages through a series of beautiful maps and plans in the explorers' own hand.
Covering professional explorers, botanists hunting for undiscovered plants, missionaries spreading Christianity, pioneering women, and the aristocratic and downright eccentric, The Great Explorers takes you to a world still waiting to be discovered. Covering everything from the early Chinese travellers to the first European arrivals in the Americas and beyond, this stunning volume recounts both familiar and unfamiliar voyages through a series of beautiful maps and plans in the explorers' own hand.
208 pages, Hardcover
Published October 2, 2018
About the author
Beau Riffenburgh
63 books9 followersBeau Riffenburgh is an author and historian specializing in polar exploration. Under the pseudonym Simon Beaufort, Beau has also co-authored 10 novels with his wife, medieval mystery writer Susanna Gregory. Eight of these are about the Crusader knight Geoffrey Mappestone, but the most recent is a modern police procedural, The Murder House (2013). All told, he has written, edited, or contributed to more than 60 books.He is also an American Football coach and author of books on football history.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 15, 2020
Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, Xuanzang, Alexander von Humboldt, David Livingstone, Francis Younghusband, Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen, Robert Scott, Ferdinand Magellan, Sven Hedin, and a long long etc.
This book is first and foremost and breadth-first compilation of the most relevant and famous explorers of all times. Its chapters are organized by regions and continents, and it is richly illustrated with original photos, paintings, maps and routes taken by the many explorers it includes.
Hats off to Riffenburgh for putting together a volume that covers pretty much every name in exploration history, and making it interesting, concise and a delight to read.
I absolutely recommend this book to anyone with an interest in exploration and adventures books in general. Given the nature of it, you'll be able to find interesting references to explorers you don't know yet and surely will want to dig out other books about them. That's the way I felt when reading this title.
Unfortunately, I'm not giving it a 5 stars because I saw some flaws in it. Mind you, all of them are minor. There are 2 or 3 typographical errors in the book, s**t happens I guess. Also, I don't think that Norsemen were given the importance they deserve in this title. I wonder if it is because the book was structured by regions that made Vikings an anecdote in this book. On the other side, I felt that an overwhelming focus was given to the Antarctic continent and South Pole expeditions. After doing some research on the author I discovered that he seems to be an expert in that area, so that would explain it. However, it takes away from making this book a much more balanced offering.
Nonetheless, that is just my personal observations. By all means, if you see this book in your local book shop....grab it!!
This book is first and foremost and breadth-first compilation of the most relevant and famous explorers of all times. Its chapters are organized by regions and continents, and it is richly illustrated with original photos, paintings, maps and routes taken by the many explorers it includes.
Hats off to Riffenburgh for putting together a volume that covers pretty much every name in exploration history, and making it interesting, concise and a delight to read.
I absolutely recommend this book to anyone with an interest in exploration and adventures books in general. Given the nature of it, you'll be able to find interesting references to explorers you don't know yet and surely will want to dig out other books about them. That's the way I felt when reading this title.
Unfortunately, I'm not giving it a 5 stars because I saw some flaws in it. Mind you, all of them are minor. There are 2 or 3 typographical errors in the book, s**t happens I guess. Also, I don't think that Norsemen were given the importance they deserve in this title. I wonder if it is because the book was structured by regions that made Vikings an anecdote in this book. On the other side, I felt that an overwhelming focus was given to the Antarctic continent and South Pole expeditions. After doing some research on the author I discovered that he seems to be an expert in that area, so that would explain it. However, it takes away from making this book a much more balanced offering.
Nonetheless, that is just my personal observations. By all means, if you see this book in your local book shop....grab it!!
July 8, 2019
Cool maps and overall idea. The dozens of typos and seemingly unedited work makes it extremely frustrating to read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews