With American independence came the freedom to sail anywhere in the world under a new flag. During the years between the Treaty of Paris and the Treaty of Wangxi; Americans first voyaged past the Cape of Good Hope; reaching the ports of Algiers and the bazaars of Arabia; the markets of India and the beaches of Sumatra; the villages of Cochin; China; and the factories of Canton. Their South Seas voyages of commerce and discovery introduced the infant nation to the world and the world to what the Chinese; Turks; and others dubbed the "new people."Drawing on private journals; letters; ships’ logs; memoirs; and newspaper accounts; Dane A. Morrison's True Yankees traces America’s earliest encounters on a global stage through the exhilarating experiences of five Yankee seafarers. Merchant Samuel Shaw spent a decade scouring the marts of China and India for goods that would captivate the imaginations of his countrymen. Mariner Amasa Delano toured much of the Pacific hunting seals. Explorer Edmund Fanning circumnavigated the globe; touching at various Pacific and Indian Ocean ports of call. In 1829; twenty-year-old Harriett Low reluctantly accompanied her merchant uncle and ailing aunt to Macao; where she recorded trenchant observations of expatriate life. And sea captain Robert Bennet Forbes’s last sojourn in Canton coincided with the eruption of the First Opium War. How did these bold voyagers approach and do business with the people in the region; whose physical appearance; practices; and culture seemed so strange? And how did native men and women―not to mention the European traders who were in direct competition with the Americans―regard these upstarts who had fought off British rule? The accounts of these adventurous travelers reveal how they and hundreds of other mariners and expatriates influenced the ways in which Americans defined themselves; thereby creating a genuinely brash national character―the "true Yankee." Readers who love history and stories of exploration on the high seas will devour this gripping tale.
#1332160 in Books Free Press 2007-09-07 2007-09-07Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x 1.30 x 6.00l; 1.70 #File Name: 1416576339528 pages
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. DecentBy Jeremy BrungerHerman is a spare conservative in other of his works and expresses a refreshing skepticism toward habitual skepticism. Thinkers like Spengler and Foucault provided important milestones for the viewpoint of pessimism--Spengler's time really was disintegrating; and Foucault was pessimistic in part because he was an intellectual and a gay man at a time when both were undergoing violent assaults (he started out as what he called a Nietzschean Marxist; so there you go). But Herman provides a bit of sanity to counter-act the misery one witnesses in everyday life and continually points out that life has always been pretty rough for most people; but such a fact ought not negate the great achievements of the liberal society. He represents a classical view of conservatism rather than the mess of popular political representation that has persisted since the days of Goldwater.The book is just about first-rate and discusses some of my favorite themes in intellectual history; so I am biased toward the likes of Schopenhauer even in refutation. His thesis is that the idea of decline is perennial and always has been; which means either the pessimist or the progressivist is wrong; but one of them *must* be wrong about the general trend of history. For every impoverished locale a person sees; hears about; or happens to live in; it is only proper to remind onself that such depressive things need not characterize society in general. A good antidote for intellectuals who tread in Franco-German philosophical waters or who think America is the worst in the world because it describes itself as the best and so must fall short.My central nitpick is the way Herman describes pessimism as silly; however seriously silly it is. There are reasons for the pessimistic mindset--good reasons; qua perennial reasons--and he tends to push them to the wayside. Were he a victim of such things I doubt he would have written this book; and so the bias of his birth and profession show through.0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Of Supreme ImportanceBy Peter T. WolfThis is one of the most important books I've ever read. And I read a GREAT DEAL. I hardly know where to begin praising it. First of all it is a tour de force of comprehensive scholarship and research. The author; Arthur Herman; tackles nothing less than the entire history of pessimistic thought and philosophy in the western world and reveals it as history's longest running fraud.Second: To write this book as well as he did required the mind boggling task of steeping himself in the writings of scores and scores of authors; ranging from ancient Greece to the 1990's. I have read Spengler and Toynbee and other books he references. They are vast undertakings. Yet Herman has gone way beyond that.Third: The author achieves a brilliant synthesis that runs throughout his centuries-long review. I was amazed at his mastery of the subject and sources which enabled him to link generation after generation of writers into a common theme. Through pitch-perfect timing; the author seeded his narrative with quotes and observations of writers that keeps the reader absolutely focused on his theme.Fourth: The book is beautifully written. Sharp; to the point; and effeciently edited; there's not an ounce of fat.Fifth: And most important. You will come away from this book with absolute disgust at the pretensions; hypocrisies and outright phoniness of many of these 'famous' doomsayers. As a Californian I was particuarily enlightened as to the source of much of the bizarre justification for radical environmentalism and multiculturalism that permeates the purblind state Democratic party. That alone was worth the price of the book.In summary; it is not possible to over emphasize the importance of this book. Much as John F. Kennedy wanted to mandate the reading of Barbara Tuchmann's 'Guns of August' for all captains in the U.S. Navy; Arthur Herman's book should be required reading for all voters.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Cassandras in our midst.By Thomas BarnettAn engaging journey through the history of pessimism;going all the way back to the Greeks. If you have friends that are real Cassandras; this book provides a wonderful description of the history of those who predict dread and gloom for the human race.
