Customer Reviews

The Great Age Of Discovery

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Most of us had our first time reading about the age of exploration in grade school, and this book will make a second look more interesting. The author brings to light many unknowns, eccentric Europeans that risked their lives for the sake of knowledge, fame, riches, and all of the above. It is difficult to believe that historically this era of exploration is not so long ago. Two huge continents remained still largely unknown to the outside world until fairly recent times. The source of the Nile, an ancient mystery was only solved around the time of the American Civil War. The author covers the well known explorers like Pizarro, Cortez, and Cook and has a very skillful way of wandering off the storyline, in a good way. He mentions motives, anecdotes, ties up loose ends, or updates to the present to show the significance of the subject. Even though the book is dated, 1974, some of the theories discussed are still being debated, such as the origin and spread of syphilis, or the migration of the early Polynesian peoples. It is difficult to find a book containing the accounts of explorers such as Burton, Speke, and Captain James Cook.
The author also puts forth some of his own observations, one example being, that the two major cultures in the Americas at the time of the Spanish landing in the Americas, both had the myth of the light skinned, blue eyed bearded gods coming from the East, conversely Europe always had the myth that there is land to the West out in the Atlantic.
Well worth the read, for the main story or the interesting side stories