Customer Reviews

The Travelers' World: Europe to the Pacific

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For anyone interested in the history of travel or of the early contacts between Europeans and indigenous peoples, this is a wonderfully stimulating book. Liebersohn brings together a deep knowledge of European intellectual history and a very perceptive reading of travel accounts written by some of the lesser-known early voyagers to Tahiti, Hawaii, and other Pacific islands. The real success of the book, in my view, is how he situates these accounts within networks of patrons, local island collaborators, and a reading audience.

He writes beautifully, in prose that is never cheapened with too easy judgments or clogged up with jargon. His book would be difficult to summarize, but suffice to say it will make you want to go back and read early travel literature.

Very highly recommended. I am going to track down Liebersohn's earlier book, "Aristocratic Encounters," in hopes that it will be as good as this one.