Boats, Blisters, Frostbite

“I will go anywhere, as long as it is forward.” –David Livingstone tells the extraordinary tales of the world’s greatest and most daring explorers—from catastrophic failures to unprecedented success stories that changed the way we see the world. Starting with the tentative early voyages around the Mediterranean, and early developments in shipbuilding technology, this book goes on to encompass all corners of the globe, and even beyond. charts the misery of months at sea, describes the deadly diseases found in the African continent, and tells of amazing women who defied convention and made their own way through dangerous landscapes. Was Columbus really the first European to discover North America? How did the tiny country of Portugal manage to conquer half the known world? How did smallpox help the Spanish conquest of Mexico? All these questions and more are answered within these pages.