'First Encounters' is a book of first contact moments drawn from over 500 years of human exploration, adventure and discovery. Divided into sections, this is a book filled with historial moments that have become the stuff of controversy, myth and legend.
Joseph Cummins is the author of numerous books, including Anything for a Vote: Dirty Tricks, Cheap Shots and October Surprises in U.S. Presidential Elections; A Bloody History of the World, which won the 2010 Our History Project Gold Medal Award; and the forthcoming Ten Tea Parties: Patriotic Protests That History Forgot. He lives in Maplewood, New Jersey, with his wife and daughter.
At the risk of gushing, I think this book has become one of my all-time favourite reads. Brimming mostly with stories of first encounters of the history of European exploration and colonisation, every single account in this book has been told in a exciting but sensitive manner. I deliberately read this work slowly so as to assimilate each story and think about it afterwards. Highly recommended.