Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration
This book was tucked away in the back of one of the drawers of my nightstand and I missed adding it to my list. But over the past week I picked it up and finished it off. I love reading about exploration; be it arctic, antarctic, mountaineering, ancient, the Age of Exploration, etc.. I guess I can imagine myself as one of these intrepid explorers seeking out new lands.
Everyone knows the names; De Gama, Cortez, Columbus, Magellan, De Soto. We usually learn about these men in 6th grade. We are taught some myths or half truths. We focus on the age of European exploration of the Atlantic and the circumnavigation of Africa and the World.
We are given glimpses of other exploring civilizations like the Vikings. But mostly it was about teaching the quick story to get to the colonization of the Americas so we could move forward to the Boston Massacre.
This book takes a look at all exploration. I learned a great deal about the Chinese exploration of the Indian Ocean and the trade routes created between the Asian countries far before Europeans hand built enough guts to move past sight of the coasts.
Fernandez-Armesto does an excellent job in the narrative from the ancient explorers up until the modern arctic and antartic explorers.
This is well worth picking up to supplement your knowledge of exploration that either you completely forgot about from middle school, or to at least fill in the remaining gaps in the stories.
