Shores Of Discovery: How Expeditionaries Have Constructed The World

by Eric J. Leed

Shores of Discovery explores the lives and motives of those who have engaged in every conceivable kind of military, missionary, commercial, scientific, even tourist. It examines the bonds linking companies and bands, crews and fleets of soldiers, sailors, missionaries, and merchants, and the causes inspiring them to leave home, cross vast distances, and arrive in foreign lands.
Memorable in their own right as stories of human aspiration, these sagas of attempts to go beyond the limits of the known offer vital clues to our own time about how different nations and cultures communicate across the boundaries of words. Through the exchange of gods and goods and information, through wordless gesture and the sharing of clothing, through music and dance, medicine and painting, these voyagers have constructed the world.

Genres: History

336 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1995

Reviews

[Will McEntee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up Shores of Discovery, by Eric Lee, because I’ve recently been enthralled with books about discovery and adventure. Shores of Discovery is not an epic saga or a grueling voyage, but rather has incredible insight into the psychology and motivations of military leaders, missionaries, merchant traders, and other pilgrims that shaped transcultural history.
The book goes into the different types of relationships expeditions created whether its leader and constituent or captor and captive, and how these different relationships shape motives for expeditions. It shows through our history many expeditions were undertaken out of necessity or out of force. The novel does a great job of explaining why different epic characters through history underwent trivial expeditions.
At the end, the author gives an insight into industry travel versus pre-industrial travel to show the vast differences. He argues pre-industrial expeditions were always taken out of necessity, while industry travel is more for leisure.
Overall, I think the book puts a lot of things into perspective and really helps the reader to understand why different people took up a life of travel, whether voluntarily or not. I recommend this book to anyone to anyone interested in history.