The Squashed edition of Voyages of Discovery by Captain James Cook. Abridged from the original text to read in an hour or so. Squashed editions are precise abridgements - the original ideas, in their own words, the full beam of the book, the quotable quotes and all the famous lines, but neatly honed down to the length of a readable short story. ""Like reading the bible without all the begats"" - Prof. Jim Curtis
Peron sailed as a zoologist on the Géographe, Nicolas Baudin's flagship, but he also pioneered studies in marine biology, anthropology and oceanography. His bitter feud with Baudin overshadowed later assessments of the French achievements. Volume 1 covers the voyage out (1800-02), and vividly describes the expedition's discoveries in Western Australia and Tasmania, as well as its visits to Timor and Sydney. Péron's observations on the Tasmanian aborigines and on the convict colony are of absorbing interest. The second volume commences with the departure from Port Jackson, revisits Timor and returns to France. The chapters in volume [3] were not originally included in the second volume, but due to demand it was decided to do a very limited edition of the section ommitted with the subtitle: Dissertations on various subjects.
1493 for Young People by Charles C. Mann tells the gripping story of globalization through travel, trade, colonization, and migration from its beginnings in the fifteenth century to the present. How did the lowly potato plant feed the poor across Europe and then cause the deaths of millions? How did the rubber plant enable industrialization? What is the connection between malaria, slavery, and the outcome of the American Revolution? How did the fabled silver mountain of sixteenth-century Bolivia fund economic development in the flood-prone plains of rural China and the wars of the Spanish Empire? Here is the story of how sometimes the greatest leaps also posed the greatest threats to human advancement. Mann's language is as plainspoken and clear as it is provocative, his research and erudition vast, his conclusions ones that will stimulate the critical thinking of young people. 1493 for Young People provides tools for wrestling with the most pressing issues of today, and will empower young people as they struggle with a changing world.
Blending global scope with local depth, this book throws new light on important themes. Spanning four centuries and vast space, it combines the history of ideas with particular histories of encounters between European voyagers and Indigenous people in Oceania (Island Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands).
