HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before (2002)

by Tony Horwitz

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,7164210,033 (3.98)168
This book 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 eighteenth century were the last great voyages of discovery. His ships sailed 150,000 miles, from the Arctic 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 of his violent death 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 traveling in the captain's wake to such places as Tahiti, Savage Island, and the Great Barrier Reef along the way, he discovers 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 farm boy who broke through the barriers of his class and time to become the greatest navigator in British history.… (more)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 168 mentions

English (41)  Spanish (1)  All languages (42)
Showing 1-5 of 41 (next | show all)
loved this book. Horwitz exposes me to people I probably wouldn't otherwise encounter, like the "aryan" civil war freaks in his other book, the new zelanders who use the swastika symbol apall and fascinate at the same time. How do people come to think and act this way.. the book has some answers. But don't get the wrong idea, mostly it is equal parts humor and history lesson and all fun ( )
  cspiwak | Mar 6, 2024 |
Another great Horowitz adventure! I couldn't resist reading, and I am glad I did. ( )
  WiserWisegirl | Dec 2, 2022 |
Another great Horowitz adventure! I couldn't resist reading, and I am glad I did. ( )
  WiserWisegirl | Dec 2, 2022 |
Thoroughly enjoyable. What could be better than laughing while learning history. Thank you, Tony Horwitz! ( )
  Martha_Thayer | Jan 13, 2022 |
Fun and well-written. Makes me want to go to the places I have not been! ( )
  untraveller | Jul 10, 2019 |
Showing 1-5 of 41 (next | show all)
Tony Horwitz has done it again. In his earlier, riveting book, "Confederates in the Attic," he journeyed through the South to explore the rich and thorny legacy of the Civil War. With the same keen insight, open- mindedness and laugh-out-loud humor, he undertakes another daunting quest in "Blue Latitudes" -- to travel across the globe in search of the memory of Captain James Cook, the 18th century English explorer whose ambition led him, as he famously put it, "not only farther than any other man has been before me,
but as far I think it possible for man to go."
 

» Add other authors (2 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Horwitz, TonyAuthorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Steffen, HeikeTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

Belongs to Publisher Series

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Ambition leads me not only farther than any man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go.----THE JOURNAL OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK
Dedication
For Natty, an adventurer at five
First words
Just after dark on February 16, 1779, a kahuna, or holy man, rode a canoe to His Majesty's Sloop Resolution, anchored off the coast of Hawaii.
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (6)

This book 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 eighteenth century were the last great voyages of discovery. His ships sailed 150,000 miles, from the Arctic 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 of his violent death 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 traveling in the captain's wake to such places as Tahiti, Savage Island, and the Great Barrier Reef along the way, he discovers 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 farm boy who broke through the barriers of his class and time to become the greatest navigator in British history.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.98)
0.5 1
1 4
1.5 1
2 10
2.5 5
3 64
3.5 17
4 156
4.5 18
5 100

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 202,659,754 books! | Top bar: Always visible