John Frew: The Edge of the Unknown, Gebunden

Klappentext

Human beings have always been explorers, setting out to trade, settle, plunder, or simply to discover the world around them. Throughout history, exploration has fuelled scientific advances and cultural exchange - but it has also paved the way for slavery, colonial expansion and environmental catastrophe.

This book tells the story of exploration, from the conquests of Alexander the Great and the travels of Marco Polo, through the voyages of Columbus and Magellan, to the race for the South Pole and the Moon landings. It examines some of history's most extraordinary journeys and the characters behind them, asking what they achieved, what drove them on and how they shaped the world we know today, for better or worse.

Along the way, we will meet the philosopher who imported Buddhist ideas to ancient Greece; the English society lady who brought an early smallpox vaccine back from the Ottoman Empire; and the Malian king who spent so lavishly in Cairo that he crashed the price of gold. We will see how Europe itself was explored by Chinese monks, Indigenous American nobles and formerly enslaved Africans. And we will consider what the future of exploratory travel holds, and what it means for our restless species.