Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Explorers:
The story of people who refused to sit still.
Quick synopsis:
A look at different explorers who are often overlooked in history.
Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like:
Daniel Boone never wore a coonskin cap. He probably wore a beaver hat.
Fun Fact for History Nerds:
Sacagawea had an equal vote with all the men of the Lewis and Clark Expedition about where to set their Pacific Coast winter camp because she was that damn important.
My Take on The Explorers:
Being an explorer sounds absolutely exhausting. I want nothing to do with it, but luckily Amanda Bellows takes a look at people much more motivated than me in her book The Explorers.
Bellows does a chapter on a wide variety of people who either were from America or became famous here. There are some very well-known folks like Amelia Earhart and Sacagawea to less well-known explorers like James Beckwourth. The format is like many books you see nowadays where it’s “The history of the world in…” things like shipwrecks or art. Bellows is a good writer and each chapter is engaging.
The problem you may run into is if you know a lot about any of the subjects. I have read a lot about Arctic exploration and space operations recently so the chapters on Matthew Henson and Sally Ride read as very high-level overviews. Specifically with the Henson chapter, I felt it was missing a lot of nuances. This isn’t a criticism so much as a warning for people who read a lot of history. Check the names of the people Bellows covers in this book. If you know most of them then this book is not targeted at you. If you are not a full-on history nerd like myself, this is a wonderful way to dip your toe into this side of the pool without reading a full biography on one person.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and William Morrow.)
Verdict:
A great intro to all these explorers. Buy it here!
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