The elusive dream of locating the Northwest Passage—an ocean route over the top of North America that promised a shortcut to the fabulous wealth of Asia—obsessed explorers for centuries. While global warming has brought several such routes into existence; until recently these channels were hopelessly choked by impassible ice. Voyagers faced unimaginable horrors—entire ships crushed; mass starvation; disabling frostbite; even cannibalism—in pursuit of a futile goal. In Arctic Labyrinth; Glyn Williams charts the entire sweep of this extraordinary history; from the tiny; woefully equipped vessels of the first Tudor expeditions to the twentieth-century ventures that finally opened the Passage. Williams’s thrilling narrative delves into private letters and journals to expose the gritty reality behind the often self-serving accounts of those in charge. An important work of maritime history and exploration—and as exciting a tale of heroism and fortitude as readers will find—Arctic Labyrinth is also a remarkable study in human delusion.
#1300931 in Books Emma Christopher Cassandra Pybus Marcus Rediker 2007-09-03 2007-09-03Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x .63 x 6.00l; .80 #File Name: 0520252071274 pagesMany Middle Passages Forced Migration and the Making of the Modern World
Review
5 of 13 people found the following review helpful. Many Middle PassagesBy Isamu NoguchiHello When I am reading "Moby Dick" by H.Merville and "The Capital" by K.Marx;I encounter this book and rejoice. Between these two big books in 19th cencury;it seems to me;this book appears very naturally alongside the course of world history. I am a Japanese translator. And When I encountered American word "abolutionist" a few decades ago; I began to read a American history by David Brion Davis; and learned about American Slavery. I rejoice partly because I find the general name of Japanese over-sea sex-slave of 19th or 20th cencuries;karayuki-san in this book. Flankly speaking I want to read a English book about yellow peril. If it appeared; I want to translate it into Japanese.7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Slavery then and nowBy janetThis excellent collection of essays more than lives up to its "Product Description." Its scope goes beyond the 3 centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade: it includes essays on slave trade in the South Pacific; forced labor and migration of Chinese; Indian and Irish people; as well as prisoners and sailors; slavery today; and links these histories of forced labor to the unfolding "needs" of global capitalism and the world that has emerged.
