Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery: An Anthology (Paperback) - Common

by Peter C. Mancall

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ushered in a new era of discovery as explorers traversed the globe, returning home with vivid tales of distant lands and exotic peoples. Aided by the invention of the printing press in Europe, travelers were able to spread their accounts to wider audiences than ever before. In Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery, historian Peter C. Mancall has compiled some of the most important travel accounts of this era. Written by authors from Spain, France, Italy, England, China, and North Africa describing locations that range from Brazil to Canada, China to Virginia, and Angola to Vietnam, these accounts provided crucial insight into unfamiliar cultures and environments, and also betrayed the prejudices of their own societies, revealing as much about the observers themselves as they did about faraway lands. From Christopher Columbus to lesser-known figures such as the Huguenot missionary Jean de Léry, this anthology brings together first-hand accounts of places connected by the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Unlike other collections, Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery offers a global view of travel at a crucial stage in world, and human, history, with accounts written by non-European authors, including two new translations. Included here are the Mughal Emperor Babur's first thoughts of India upon establishing his empire there, the Chinese chronicler Ma Huan's report detailing Chinese travel to the Middle East during the fifteenth century, and an account of Africa written by the man known as Leo Africanus. In addition to these travel narratives, this anthology features rare pictures from sixteenth-century printed books, including images of Brazil, Roanoke, Guiana, and India, which, together with the accounts themselves, provide a detailed understanding of the many ways in which fifteenth and sixteenth century travelers and readers imagined other worlds.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

430 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

A 1981 graduate of Oberlin college, Peter Mancall attended graduate school at Harvard University, where he received a Ph.D. in history in 1986. Mancall was a visiting Assistant Professor of History at Connecticut College from 1986 to 1987. After teaching as a Lecturer on History and Literature at Harvard for two years, he took a position at the University of Kansas in 1989. In 2001, Mancall took a position at the University of Southern California, where he helped to create the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute in 2003, becoming its first director. He has served on the editorial board of several journals, and from 2007 to 2009 he was Associate Vice Provost for Research Advancement at the University of Southern California.

Mancall has written five books and edited eight others, and written around forty book reviews in such journals as American Historical Review, Journal of American History, Journal of Economic History, Journal of the Early Republic, and many others. His newest book, Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson—A Tale of Mutiny and Murder in the Arctic was published by Basic Books on June 9, 2009. Mancall has accepted an offer to write Volume 1 of the Oxford History of the United States series covering American colonial history to c. 1680.

~from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_C....

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Exactly what I expected. Did not enjoy this.

[Dave Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collection of excerpts from travel narrative source documents that gives a unique window into an incredibly interesting time in our history. The introductions to each piece make this a very accessible text for non-academic readers.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this was probably intended as more of reference book, I found these travel narratives quite entertaining.