The Explorers: From the Ancient World to the Present
The urge to explore surely is deeply rooted in the human psyche. In the opening pages of this magnificently illustrated tribute to the history of exploration, anthropologist and explorer Alberto Salza, speaking to Novaresio, a specialist in the methodology of exploration, links the exploratory urge to, in children, the need to "learn very quickly" all that the child requires "for survival," and, in adults, to the activity of play. From this theoretical base, Novaresio launches into a brisk but very wide-ranging historical survey of exploration, from the earliest migrations of Homo erectus through the Apollo moon missions and beyond. In large part, he centers his text around the exploits of famed explorers: Alexander the Great, Columbus, James Cook, Lewis and Clark, Richard Burton, Robert Peary, Edmund Hillary and many others make dramatic appearances here. The text is perforce sketchy in parts; the deep-sea missions of William Beebe and Auguste Piccard, for instance, are dispensed with in one paragraph and a few pictures. But the real draw to this book isn't the text but the 640 illustrations-a cornucopia of drawings, paintings, photos and maps, 400 in color, rhythmically integrated with the text and reproduced in strong lines and vibrant tones. This isn't the definitive history of exploration, but it may be the book about exploration that readers will enjoy exploring above all others.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.