History : Exploration & Discovery

Ferdinand Magellan's daring circumnavigation of the globe in the sixteenth century was a three-year odyssey filled with sex, violence, and amazing adventure. Now in Over the Edge of the World , prize-winning biographer and journalist Laurence Bergreen entwines a variety of candid, firsthand accounts, bringing to life this groundbreaking and majestic tale of discovery that changed both the way explorers would henceforth navigate the oceans and history itself. more...

Price: $12.99

This volume is the first-ever English translation of the memoirs of Karl Heller, a twenty-year-old aspiring Austrian botanist who traveled to Mexico in 1845 to collect specimens. He passed through the Caribbean, lived for a time in the mountains of Veracruz, and journeyed to Mexico City through the cities of Puebla and Cholula. After a brief residence in the capital, Heller moved westward to examine the volcanoes and silver mines near Toluca. When the United States invaded Mexico in 1846–47 conditions became chaotic, and the enterprising botanist was forced to flee to Yucatán. Heller lived in the port city of Campeche, but visited Mèrida, the ruins of Uxmal, and the remote southern area of the Champotòn River." From there Heller, traveling by canoe, journeyed through southern Tabasco and northern Chiapas and finally returned to Vienna through Cuba and the United States bringing back thousands of samples of Mexican plants and animals. Heller's account is one of the few documents we have from travelers who visited Mexico in this period, and it is particularly useful in describing conditions outside the capital of Mexico City. In 1853 Heller published his German-language account as Reisen in Mexiko, but the work has remained virtually unknown to English or Spanish readers. This edition now provides a complete, annotated, and highly readable translation. more...

Price: $23.96

An Introduction: The Present State of Atlantic History, Philip D. Morgan and Jack P. Greene. 1. The Atlantic Ocean and Its Contemporary Meanings, 1492-1808, Joyce E. Chaplin (Harvard University). Section One: New Atlantic Worlds. 2. The Spanish Atlantic System, Kenneth J. Andrien (Ohio State University). 3. The Portuguese Atlantic, 1415-1808, A. J. R. Russell-Wood (Johns Hopkins University). 4. The British Atlantic, Trevor Burnard (University of Warwick, UK). 5. The French Atlantic, Laurent Dubois (Duke University). 6. The Dutch Atlantic: Provincialism and Globalism, Benjamin Schmidt (University of Washington). Section Two: Old Worlds and the Atlantic. 7. Indigenous America and the Limits of the Atlantic World, 1493-1825, Amy Turner Bushnell (John Carter Brown Library, RI). 8. Africa and the Atlantic, c. 1450 to c. 1820, Philip D. Morgan (Johns Hopkins University). 9. Europe and the Atlantic, Carla Rahn Phillips (University of Minnesota). Section Three: Competing and Complementary Perspectives. 10. From Atlantic History to Continental History, Peter H. Wood (Duke University). 11. Hemispheric History and Atlantic History, Jack P. Greene (Johns Hopkins University). 12. Atlantic History and Global History, Nicholas Canny (National University of Ireland, Galway). 13. Beyond Atlantic History, Peter A. Coclanis (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) more...

Price: $21.95

Captain Cook’s Journal during his first voyage round the world made in H.M. Bark “Endeavour” 1768-71. more...

Price: $4.99

When Spanish explorers and missionaries came onto Southern California's shores in 1769, they encountered the large towns and villages of the Chumash, a people who at that time were among the most advanced hunter-gatherer societies in the world. The Spanish were entertained and fed at lavish feasts hosted by chiefs who ruled over the settlements and who participated in extensive social and economic networks. In this first modern synthesis of data from the Chumash heartland, Lynn H. Gamble weaves together multiple sources of evidence to re-create the rich tapestry of Chumash society. Drawing from archaeology, historical documents, ethnography, and ecology, she describes daily life in the large mainland towns, focusing on Chumash culture, household organization, politics, economy, warfare, and more. more...

Price: $39.96