The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages, A.D. 1492-1616 [Hardcover]

Samuel Eliot Morison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 1974

Completing Morison's monumental study of the explorers who discovered and journeyed through the coasts of the Americas, ths volume covers not only all of Latin America, including theCaribbean area and South America, but also Bermuda, Florida and California.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Exuberant....Plenty of meticulous research and inspired labor went into this true and exciting yarn of the early European voyages to America. But there's more than that. He has added to his research by physically retacing many of the explorers' routes, gaining his descriptive color firsthand. He offers a hearty fare mixed with oakum, salt spray and sea biscuit."--The Christian Science Monitor

"Now [Morison] has united the latest findings of modern scholarship, American and European, to his own zestful explorations by land, sea and air, to produce a comprehensive and, for our day and age, definitive account of the process by which Europe substituted fact for fable and knowledge for ignorance about the New World across the Western Ocean....[A] unique combination of scholarship and fieldwork....Into these volumes is distilled a lifetime of experience--of sailing, of learning and of the sadly neglected art of historical narration. They are a joy and a treasure house."--Economist --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

The late Samuel Eliot Morison, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, was the author of numerous books including The Oxford History of the American People, The Growth of the American Republic, and Admiral of the Ocean, a biography of Columbus.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 820 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (October 14, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195018230
• ISBN-13: 978-0195018233
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #716,721 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Columbus, Magellan, and others, April 11, 2005

By 

Smallchief - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages, A.D. 1492-1616 (Hardcover)

There's not much doubt that Samuel Eliot Morison's two volume history of the European discovery of America is the best around. The first of the volumes, "The Northern Voyages," is probably of more interest to North Americans, delving as it does into the Vikings and speculative pre-Columbian discoveries of America.

"The Southern Voyages" begins with Columbus, covering his four voyages in about 200 pages, proceeds onward to Magellan and his circumnavigation of the globe, "the most remarkable voyage in recorded history," and finishes with the English voyages of Sir Francis Drake and Thomas Cavendish. Along the way, Morison also discusses the voyages of many "minor" explorers including the enigmatic Amerigo Vespucci, a man of modest accomplishments who saw his name applied to two continents. Sebastian Cabot rates a chapter as does the Dutch discovery of Cape Horn and the French and Portuguese in Brazil.

Morison was a sailor himself, a student of the sea, a naval historian, a biographer of Columbus, and a fine storyteller. He brings a wealth of insight to the voyages and even undertook expeditions of his own to visit the places where the voyagers called. His admiration for Columbus' seamanship is unbounded. "Never was a title more justly bestowed than...Admiral of the Ocean Sea." This admiration is a bit old-fashioned today, as latter-day historians talk more about Columbus's faults on land than his skill at sea. Morison follows each chapter in his book with notes and a bibliography in which he discusses, often with some humor, the controversies, old maps, and speculations so beloved by armchair theorists and explorers. Numerous photographs and outstanding maps dot the text.

To my mind any reading about the European discoverers of America should begin with Morison's two volumes -- and it can end there in most cases unless the reader's thirst for knowledge is unquenchable. This is an outstanding book and nothing comparable has been written to my knowledge since its publication 30 years ago.

Smallchief

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An invaluable work. Highly Recommended., July 11, 2002

By 

James Kasprzak (Darkest New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages, A.D. 500-1600 (Hardcover)

Morrison's monumental chronicle of the European expeditions to America still holds its place as the best work in the field after three decades. Although quite lengthy (two volumes weigh in at more than 800 pages each), the books are quite readable and the writing manages to be both scholarly and entertaining.

This history doesn't deal with the explorations in a vacuum. Every voyage to America was prompted and influenced by a variety of social, economic, political, and technological factors in its country of origin, and Morrison gives a thorough view of the background of the explorers and their home country before treating the expeditions themselves. This book will not only tell you what the explorers discovered, but what they were looking for and why.

For all of those interested in the Viking expeditions to North America, this book tells the definitive story. The exact site of the first Viking settlement has been identified, and the archaeological evidence is discussed here. There is also a thorough debunking of several spurious "Viking stones" in places like Minnesota and New Hampshire.

Other explorations of North America are covered in fascinating detail, including the seasonal but very active sixteenth-century fishing outposts in Newfoundland, and the many attempts to discover the elusive Northwest Passage.

As a naval historian, Morrison devoted a fair number of pages in this book to technical descriptions of ships and sailing. The uninterested reader can safely skim over these parts without detracting from the historical saga, but this landlubber found it interesting to trace the technological development of the vessels that crossed the Atlantic.

In short, if you have any interest in who explored the Americas, why they went there, and what they experienced, then this is absolutely the best book you can read on the subject.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Maritime History book ever!!, October 16, 2010

By 

natlite - See all my reviews

This review is from: The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages, A.D. 1492-1616 (Hardcover)

I've read countless modern books about the Age of Discovery but it took finding this series by Samual E Morison, written in the early 1970's to knock the socks off every history book on the subject. The best!!!! Very readable, and Morison adds his little wit and flare like no one else can.