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Latitude: The True Story of the World’s First Scientific Expedition
Latitude
is a gloriously exciting tale of adventure and scientific discovery that has never been told before.
Crane, the former president of the Royal Geographic Society, documents the remarkable expedition undertaken by a group of 12 European adventurer-scientists in the mid-18th century. The team spent years in South America, scaling volcanoes and traversing jungles, before they achieved their goal of establishing the exact shape of the Earth by measuring the length of one degree latitude at the equator.
By knowing the shape of the Earth, people can create maps, survive the oceans, navigate the skies, and travel across the globe. Without latitude, maps and navigation would not be accurate, lives would have been lost, and exact locations of cities and rivers would never be known. After 10 grueling years in search of a magic number, the survivors returned to Europe with their historical discovery and fueled the public’s interest in science.
Their endeavors were not limited to this one achievement. Not only did their discovery open up the possibility for safe, accurate navigation across the seas, but they also discovered rubber and quinine.
With a narrative that reads like it was taken from the script of an adventure movie, Nicholas Crane shows how scientific discovery can change the world and our future. Filled with raw excitement and danger, Latitude brings to vivid life the challenges that faced these explorer-scientists.
Years ago, Dava Sobel’s best-selling Longitude was a global publishing phenomenon, yet it told only one half of the story. With Latitude, this cornerstone piece of our shared history is now complete with this account of a trip that changed the course of human civilization.
Crane, the former president of the Royal Geographic Society, documents the remarkable expedition undertaken by a group of 12 European adventurer-scientists in the mid-18th century. The team spent years in South America, scaling volcanoes and traversing jungles, before they achieved their goal of establishing the exact shape of the Earth by measuring the length of one degree latitude at the equator.
By knowing the shape of the Earth, people can create maps, survive the oceans, navigate the skies, and travel across the globe. Without latitude, maps and navigation would not be accurate, lives would have been lost, and exact locations of cities and rivers would never be known. After 10 grueling years in search of a magic number, the survivors returned to Europe with their historical discovery and fueled the public’s interest in science.
Their endeavors were not limited to this one achievement. Not only did their discovery open up the possibility for safe, accurate navigation across the seas, but they also discovered rubber and quinine.
With a narrative that reads like it was taken from the script of an adventure movie, Nicholas Crane shows how scientific discovery can change the world and our future. Filled with raw excitement and danger, Latitude brings to vivid life the challenges that faced these explorer-scientists.
Years ago, Dava Sobel’s best-selling Longitude was a global publishing phenomenon, yet it told only one half of the story. With Latitude, this cornerstone piece of our shared history is now complete with this account of a trip that changed the course of human civilization.
Audible Audio
Published October 5, 2021
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About the author
Nicholas Crane
34 books28 followersDistilled from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas... accessed 07-Aug-2012:
Nicholas Crane (born 6 May 1954) is an English geographer, explorer, writer and broadcaster was born in Hastings, East Sussex, but grew up in Norfolk. He attended Wymondham College from 1967 until 1972, then Cambridgeshire College of Arts & Technology (CCAT), a forerunner to Anglia Ruskin University, where he studied Geography.
In his youth he went camping and hiking with his father and explored Norfolk by bicycle which gave him his enthusiasm for exploration. In 1986 he located the pole of inaccessibility for the Eurasia landmass travelling with his cousin Richard; their journey being the subject of the book “Journey to the Centre of the Earth.”
He married Annabel Huxley in 1991. They live in Chalk Farm in north-west London and have three children.
In 1992/3 he embarked on an 18-month solo journey, walking 10,000 kilometres from Cape Finisterre to Istanbul. He recounted that expedition in his book “Clear Waters Rising: A Mountain Walk Across Europe” which won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award in 1997. He made a television self-documentary of the journey in “High Trails to Istanbul” (1994).
Together with Richard Crane he was awarded the 1992 Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his journeys in Tibet, China, Afghanistan and Africa.
His 2000 book “Two Degrees West” described his walk across Great Britain in which he followed the eponymous meridian as closely as possible. More recently he published a biography of Gerard Mercator, the great Flemish cartographer.
In November 2007 he debated the future of the English countryside with Richard Girling, Sue Clifford, Richard Mabey and Bill Bryson as part of CPRE's annual Volunteers Conference
Since 2004 he has written and presented four notable television series for BBC Two: Coast, Great British Journeys, Map Man and Town.
Nicholas Crane (born 6 May 1954) is an English geographer, explorer, writer and broadcaster was born in Hastings, East Sussex, but grew up in Norfolk. He attended Wymondham College from 1967 until 1972, then Cambridgeshire College of Arts & Technology (CCAT), a forerunner to Anglia Ruskin University, where he studied Geography.
In his youth he went camping and hiking with his father and explored Norfolk by bicycle which gave him his enthusiasm for exploration. In 1986 he located the pole of inaccessibility for the Eurasia landmass travelling with his cousin Richard; their journey being the subject of the book “Journey to the Centre of the Earth.”
He married Annabel Huxley in 1991. They live in Chalk Farm in north-west London and have three children.
In 1992/3 he embarked on an 18-month solo journey, walking 10,000 kilometres from Cape Finisterre to Istanbul. He recounted that expedition in his book “Clear Waters Rising: A Mountain Walk Across Europe” which won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award in 1997. He made a television self-documentary of the journey in “High Trails to Istanbul” (1994).
Together with Richard Crane he was awarded the 1992 Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his journeys in Tibet, China, Afghanistan and Africa.
His 2000 book “Two Degrees West” described his walk across Great Britain in which he followed the eponymous meridian as closely as possible. More recently he published a biography of Gerard Mercator, the great Flemish cartographer.
In November 2007 he debated the future of the English countryside with Richard Girling, Sue Clifford, Richard Mabey and Bill Bryson as part of CPRE's annual Volunteers Conference
Since 2004 he has written and presented four notable television series for BBC Two: Coast, Great British Journeys, Map Man and Town.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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November 28, 2025Skimmed to finish. Not as interesting as longitude.
June 9, 2025
I listened to this for a reading challenge. This is not my preferred genre and I think I would have enjoyed it more it I had made it a "bedtime" book instead of listening to it; I prefer my non-fiction in small chunks before bed. However, the narrator was good. This was well researched. The primary source material was interesting. The conclusions made by the author and the interjections were logical and occasionally funny. But, because this is not my preferred genre I found myself getting distracted and zoning out and missing parts and not really caring, which is why I think it would have been better for me to to this at bedtime. But, if this is your genre, then you should definitely give this a read!
January 12, 2026
This was a good story. A little slow at times, but very interesting at the end.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews