Pioneers: A New History of Geographic Discoveries

Forget everything you knew about the great geographic discoveries! Matthew Lockwood presents a radically new view of 4000 years of history, in which Columbus and Captain Cook are just part of a vast mosaic. The adventurers he describes set out for various reasons. Some were forced to leave due to necessity, fleeing from slavery, war, and hunger, in search of peace and prosperity. Others traveled as prisoners. Some, like one of the elders of the Eora people, Woollarawarre Bennelong, who visited England, wanted to see what lay on the other side of the ocean. By describing the journeys of well-known adventurers and explorers whose names have been overshadowed, Lockwood celebrates curiosity and courage and shows why understanding the human desire for the unknown is essential to grasping human nature and history.