The Travels of Captain Cook

by Ronald Syme, Werner Forman

The Travels of Captain Cook

Genres: Travel, History

179 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Sir Ronald Syme, OM, FBA (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. Long associated with Oxford University, he is widely regarded as the 20th century's greatest historian of ancient Rome. His great work was The Roman Revolution (1939), a masterly and controversial analysis of Roman political life in the period following the assassination of Julius Caesar.

Reviews

[Øyvind · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting history, complete with an abundance of excerpts from Cook's own diaries. Funny how the author Syme, writing in 1970, actually comes across as more of an ethnocentrist than Cook, writing in the late 1700s. Not to judge the past by our present standards here; I mention it simply because it struck me just how mainstream the concepts of inherent racial qualities in humans were, even among the scholars of our recent past.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Journal accounts of James Cook and his many explorations in the Pacific. Great stories. Enjoyed learning the differences and similarities between the islands. Also includes his exploration of Vancouver and Alaska as he sought a NW passage.

[Galicius · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fine work is too big to describe in a few paragraphs. Much of it is Captain Cook's own words from his travel journals.