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Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before
by Tony Horwitz

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before Cover

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Powells.com Staff Pick

In a highly entertaining adventure, Tony Horwitz rides the wake of Captain James Cook, recreating the history of his pioneering voyages, the stories of his island landings, and the lasting impact his contact had on the indigenous populations. Accompanied by his comic sidekick, Roger, Horwitz visits many of the places Cook landed, meeting with locals to get their view of Cook's lasting legacy. If you enjoy the writing of Bill Bryson, you'll appreciate the history and levity of this wonderful book. Michal Drannen, Powells.com

Blue Latitudes is an enjoyable and often hilarious journey into the amazing life and adventures of Captain James Cook and his crew. There is no better way to learn nautical history than to bring an Aussie, and a bottle of grog, along.
Recommended by Jay

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In an exhilarating tale of historic adventure, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Confederates in the Attic retraces the voyages of Captain James Cook, the Yorkshire farm boy who drew the map of the modern world.

Captain James Cook's three epic journeys in the 18th century were the last great voyages of discovery. His ships sailed 150,000 miles, from the Artic to the Antarctic, from Tasmania to Oregon, from Easter Island to Siberia. When Cook set off for the Pacific in 1768, a third of the globe remained blank. By the time he died in Hawaii in 1779, the map of the world was substantially complete.

Tony Horwitz vividly recounts Cook's voyages and the exotic scenes the captain encountered: tropical orgies, taboo rituals, cannibal feasts, human sacrifice. He also relives Cook's adventures by following in the captain's wake to places such as Tahiti, Savage Island, and the Great Barrier Reef to discover Cook's embattled legacy in the present day. Signing on as a working crewman aboard a replica of Cook's vessel, Horwitz experiences the thrill and terror of sailing a tall ship. He also explores Cook the man: an impoverished farmboy who broke through the barriers of his class and time to become the greatest navigator in British history.

By turns harrowing and hilarious, insightful and entertaining, Blue Latitudes brings to life a man whose voyages helped create the 'global village' we know today.

Review:

"Blue Latitudes is a thoroughly enjoyable book. No writer has better captured the heroic enigma that was Captain James Cook than Tony Horwitz in this amiable and enthralling excursion around the Pacific." Bill Bryson, author of In a Sunburned Country

Review:

"Horwitz's adventures pay illuminating tribute to the great navigator ? to Captain Cook himself and to his intrepid eighteenth-century colleagues, including the improbably attractive Sir Joseph Banks. But most of all Blue Latitudes offers clear-eyed, vivid, and highly entertaining reassurance that there are still outlandish worlds to be discovered." Caroline Alexander, author of The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

Review:

"Horwitz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is an observant traveler, with an eye for both the oddball and the salient." Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Review:

"One of the problems with our planet is that there is nowhere new to go. Modern would-be adventurers overcome this obstacle by tracing the paths of early explorers, telling their stories, describing how the world has since changed and then folding everything into 'in the footsteps of' books. Tony Horwitz's Blue Latitudes is one of the best." Robert R. Harris, New York Times Book Review

Review:

"Blue Latitudes is a rollicking read that is also a sneaky work of scholarship, providing new and unexpected insights into the man who out-discovered Columbus. A terrific book ? I inhaled it in one weekend." Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea

Review:

"Horwitz's adventures pay illuminating tribute to the great navigator ? to Captain Cook himself and to his intrepid eighteenth-century colleagues, including the improbably attractive Sir Joseph Banks. But most of all Blue Latitudes offers clear-eyed, vivid, and highly entertaining reassurance that there are still outlandish worlds to be discovered." Caroline Alexander, author of The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

Review:

"This thought-provoking travelogue brims with insight and will appeal to anyone who yearns for the days when there was something left to discover ? while making them wonder if, really, we should have just stayed home." Keir Graff, Booklist

Review:

"With prodigious research and a willingness to raise the subject of Captain Cook with anyone, including a drunk, a king and a girl in a wet T-shirt, Horwitz has managed to muscle a big, sloppy idea into something coherent and fun to read." Thomas Jackson, Forbes

Synopsis:

Captain James Cook's three epic journeys between 1768 and 1779 were the last great voyages of discovery. Horwitz both retraces and relives Cook's historic voyages and nautical way of life.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Baje360, May 16, 2008 (view all comments by Baje360)
Take a voyage along Cook’s route in Horwitz style. Much like going back to a beloved vacation spot years later to find in overrun with litter and smog, Horowitz shows us the reality of exploring new lands. The author’s ability to link the past with the present in absurd and comical ways helps the reader truly understand how a journey can change with time.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780965047395
Author:
Tony Horwitz
Binding:
MASS MARKET
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