The fascinating untold story of Finnish scientist and explorer Pehr Kalm, who in 1750, became the first scientist to visit and study Niagara Falls. Sent by the famous Swedish natural historian Carl Linnaeus to research the New World, Kalm’s task was to collect samples and write descriptions for Linnaeus. His exciting expedition lasted three and a half years, and its impact on the natural sciences was groundbreaking. Kalm described all that he saw: the landscape and geography, colonists’ settlements and customs, Indians and slaves, and of course, many plants and animals. His scientific report on Niagara Falls was the first, and it was published by Benjamin Franklin. Two states have named their state flowers after him, and the Virginia creeper, which he brought back from his travels, now grows all over Finland.The book’s brilliant illustrations offer an accurate and engaging picture of Kalm’s journey, and the text is enriched by passages from Kalm’s own travel journal. From Finland to Niagara Falls is an illustrated history book for the young and the curious of all ages.

This is the story of how Thor Heyderdahl and five other men crossed the Pacific Ocean on a balsa-wood raft in an extraordinary bid to prove Heyderdahl's theory that the Polynesians undertook the same feat on such a craft over 1000 years ago.

This biographical dictionary provides sketches of seventy- seven individuals--explorers, writers, and scholars--from Aristotle to David W. Harvey, who made significant contributions to the development of the discipline of geography. The work examines a cross section of geographers from a variety of subfields within the discipline, from ancient to modern.

Each entry examines the career and impact of the individual and then provides selected bibliographies of works by and about the person. The work contains internal cross-referencing, and the entire volume concludes with appendices listing the individuals chronologically as well as by country of birth. It has a general subject index and essential reference material for the general public and students looking for information on key figures and a background to the discipline.

In 1906, from the ice fields northwest of Greenland, Commander Robert E. Peary spotted an unknown land in the distance. He called it "Crocker Land". Scientists and explorers agreed that Peary had found a new continent. Several years later, two of his disciples, George Borup and Donald MacMillan-with the sponsorship of the American Museum of Natural History-assembled a team to investigate. They pitched their two-year mission as a scientific tour de force to fill in the last blank space on the globe. But the Crocker Land Expedition became a five-year ordeal that endured a fatal boating accident, a drunken captain, a shipwreck, marooned rescue parties, disease, dissension and a crewman-turned-murderer. Based on a trove of unpublished letters, diaries and field notes, A Wretched and Precarious Situation is a harrowing adventure.

--Riveting accounts of difficult expeditions-some historically famous-offer a unique window onto polar ventures. --Exemplifies historical and social science methods for student readers. --Draws valuable findings that apply to many forms of modern disasters and challenges.

The Age of Discovery was a time of exploration and developing new ideas, when Europeans first travelled across the seas to other lands.  In his warm and expressive style, Charles Kovacs tells stories of key European historical figures, from the Crusades to the Renaissance, including Saladin, Joan of Arc, Columbus, Magellan, Queen Elizabeth I and Francis Drake, and draws out the interrelation of world events. This revised edition of a classic text is an engaging resource for teachers and home-schooling parents. This historical period is traditionally covered in Class 7 (age 13-14) of the Steiner-Waldorf curriculum.

Series Information:
The History of Civilization

Today's cities grew from the rural settlements still home to over half of the world's population. Excavating the changing forms and functions of these settlements, "Landscapes of Settlement" explores their origins, their social and economic development, and their prospects for the future.
Settlement is the physical reflection of the social organization of space. Starting with the human dwelling, settlements aggregate into farmsteads, hamlets, villages, towns, and cities. Emphasizing their impact on present day society, "Landscapes of" "Settlement" traces the course of rural development, deciphering from these contours the history of the land and its people. Out of detailed case studies in both the developed and developing worlds this book distills the underlying processes behind rural settlement systems, and then builds upon this to analyze settlement patterns on the continental and global scales.

Rural settlements underlie today's cities and still hold over half the world's population. This text excavates the changing forms and functions of these settlements, exploring their origins, development and their future. Settlement is the physical reflection of the social organization of space. Starting with the human dwelling, settlement aggregates into farmsteads, hamlets, villages, towns and cities. Patterns of development can be traced, contours by which a history of a land and its people can be read.;Illustrated with photographs, maps and figures, the book firstly presents detailed case studies of specific sites in both the developed and developing worlds in order to distill the underlying processes behind rural settlement systems, and then builds on this to analyze settlement patterns on the continental and global scales.

Enter a world of ancient secrets, old money, new ambitions and the discovery of priceless treasure in this revelatory new biography. Between November 1922 and spring 1923, a door to the ancient Egyptian world was opened. The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun would be the most astonishing archaeological find of the century, revealing not only the boy pharaoh’s preserved remains, but thousands of finely crafted objects, from the iconic gold mask and coffins to a dagger made from meteorite, chalices, beautiful furniture and even 3000-year-old food and wine. The world’s understanding of Ancient Egyptian civilisation was immeasurably enhanced, and the quantity and richness of the objects in the tomb is still being studied today. Two men were ultimately responsible for the discovery: Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter. It was Lord Carnarvon who held the concession to excavate and whose passion and ability to finance the project allowed the eventual discovery to take place. The Earl and the Pharaoh tells the story of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. Carnarvon’s life, money and sudden death became front-page news throughout the world following the discovery of the tomb, fuelling rumours that persist today of ‘the curse of the pharaohs’. His beloved home, Highclere Castle, is today best-known as the set of Downton Abbey. Drawing on Highclere Castle’s never-before-plumbed archives, bestselling author Fiona, the Countess of Carnarvon, charts the twists of luck and tragedies that shaped Carnarvon’s life; his restless and enquiring mind that drove him to travel to escape conventional society life in Edwardian Britain.

Having always been fascinated by these singular landscapes, Sergio Rossi reconstructs some of the episodes that have marked the exploration of these territories, such as the dramatic race between Amundsen and Scott to conquer the South Pole, and Captain Shackleton's odyssey to save his crew from certain death. But also modern trips including his own to these remote areas, explaining many aspects of the current science and political competition that is underway. The book leads us on an entertaining overview of all the problems and opportunities that the planet's most forgotten continent offers to humans. A remote mass of ice upon which our future as a species depends and which we cannot continue to ignore any longer.

On May 15, 2010, after 210 days at sea and more than 22,000 nautical miles, 16-year-old Jessica Watson sailed her 33-foot boat triumphantly back to land. She had done it. She was the youngest person to sail solo, unassisted, and nonstop around the world.
Jessica spent years preparing for this moment, years focused on achieving her dream. Yet only eight months before, she collided with a 63,000-ton freighter. It seemed to many that she'd failed before she'd even begun, but Jessica brushed herself off, held her head high, and kept going.
Told in Jessica's own words, "True Spirit "is the story of her epic voyage. It tells how a young girl, once afraid of everything, decided to test herself on an extraordinary adventure that included gale-force winds, mountainous waves, hazardous icebergs, and extreme loneliness on a vast sea, with no land in sight and no help close at hand. "True Spirit "is an inspiring story of risk, guts, determination, and achievement that ultimately proves we all have the power to live our dreams--no matter how big or small.

This is an annual collection of studies of individuals who have made major contributions to the development of geography and geographical thought. Subjects are drawn from all periods and from all parts of the world, and include famous names as well as those less well known: explorers, independent thinkers and scholars. Each paper describes the geographer's education, life and work and discusses their influence and spread of academic ideas, and includes a select bibliography and brief chronology. The work includes a general index and a cumulative index of geographers listed in volumes published to date.

The definitive history of the Vikings -- from arts and culture to politics and cosmology -- by a distinguished archaeologist with decades of expertise The Viking Age -- from 750 to 1050 -- saw an unprecedented expansion of the Scandinavian peoples into the wider world. As traders and raiders, explorers and colonists, they ranged from eastern North America to the Asian steppe. But for centuries, the Vikings have been seen through the eyes of others, distorted to suit the tastes of medieval clerics and Elizabethan playwrights, Victorian imperialists, Nazis, and more. None of these appropriations capture the real Vikings, or the richness and sophistication of their culture. Based on the latest archaeological and textual evidence, Children of Ash and Elm tells the story of the Vikings on their own terms: their politics, their cosmology and religion, their material world. Known today for a stereotype of maritime violence, the Vikings exported new ideas, technologies, beliefs, and practices to the lands they discovered and the peoples they encountered, and in the process were themselves changed. From Eirik Bloodaxe, who fought his way to a kingdom, to Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir, the most traveled woman in the world, Children of Ash and Elm is the definitive history of the Vikings and their time.

John James Audubon's The Birds of America stands as an unparalleled achievement in American art, a huge book that puts nature dramatically on the page. With that work, Audubon became one of the most adulated artists of his time, and America's first celebrity scientist. In this fresh approach to Audubon's art and science, Gregory Nobles shows us that Audubon's greatest creation was himself. A self-made man incessantly striving to secure his place in American society, Audubon made himself into a skilled painter, a successful entrepreneur, and a prolific writer, whose words went well beyond birds and scientific description. He sought status with the "gentlemen of science" on both sides of the Atlantic, but he also embraced the ornithology of ordinary people. In pursuit of popular acclaim in art and science, Audubon crafted an expressive, audacious, and decidedly masculine identity as the "American Woodsman," a larger-than-life symbol of the new nation, a role he perfected in his quest for transatlantic fame. Audubon didn't just live his life; he performed it. In exploring that performance, Nobles pays special attention to Audubon's stories, some of which-the murky circumstances of his birth, a Kentucky hunting trip with Daniel Boone, an armed encounter with a runaway slave-Audubon embellished with evasions and outright lies. Nobles argues that we cannot take all of Audubon's stories literally, but we must take them seriously. By doing so, we come to terms with the central irony of Audubon's true nature: the man who took so much time and trouble to depict birds so accurately left us a bold but deceptive picture of himself.

Get back to nature and explore sites unspoilt by humankind with the latest addition to the Inspired Traveller's Guide series. We humans don't just love wild places. We need them; we need their scale, their breath, their drama and enigma. Wild places can be a balm and a solace; an escape or a returning; a best friend; an inner cleanse. And they can remind us of our unimportance in the world. Travel writer Sarah Baxter presents 25 untameable natural wonders that reveal the curious story of our wild planet and why we need to protect it. Despite all the advances of human civilisation, we've yet to come up with anything to rival the majesty of Lapland's snow-capped mountain summits, the haunting song of humpback whales in a Namibian paradise or the epic sculptural forms of Utah's vast Canyonlands. Escape to each of these unforgettable sites and more with Wild Places, an insightful and stunningly illustrated guide to all Mother Nature has to offer. Discover spectacular and little-known gems with visits to... Great Dismal Swamp, USA Canyonlands, USA Great Bear Rainforest, Canada Cenotes, Mexico Galapagos Islands, Ecuador Kaieteur Falls, Guyana South Georgia, Atlantic Ocean Ennerdale, England Strumble Head, Wales St Kilda, Scotland Camargue, France Sapmi, Lapland, Sweden Green Belt, Germany Wadden Sea, Netherlands Stromboli, Italy Las Medulas, Spain Coa Valley, Portugal Skeleton Coast, Namibia Erg Chigaga, Morocco Kinabatangan, Malaysia Mount Siguniang, China Raja Ampat, Indonesia Gangkar Puensum, Bhutan Wilpena Pound, Australia Wahipounamu, New Zealand This is the perfect title for anyone who is fascinated by the marvels of the natural world. For more wanderlust-filled adventures, discover and collect the complete Inspired Traveller's Guide series: Artistic Places, Spiritual Places, Literary Places, Hidden Places and Mystical Places.

Never tell a woman where she doesn't belong. In 1932, Roy Chapman Andrews, president of the men-only Explorers Club, boldly stated to hundreds of female students at Barnard College that "women are not adapted to exploration," and that women and exploration do not mix. He obviously didn't know a thing about either... The Girl Explorers is the inspirational and untold story of the founding of the Society of Women Geographers—an organization of adventurous female world explorers—and how key members served as early advocates for human rights and paved the way for today's women scientists by scaling mountains, exploring the high seas, flying across the Atlantic, and recording the world through film, sculpture, and literature. Follow in the footsteps of these rebellious women as they travel the globe in search of new species, widen the understanding of hidden cultures, and break records in spades. For these women dared to go where no woman—or man—had gone before, achieving the unthinkable and breaking through barriers to allow future generations to carry on their important and inspiring work. The Girl Explorers is an inspiring examination of forgotten women from history, perfect for fans of bestselling narrative history books like The Radium Girls, The Woman Who Smashed Codes, and Rise of the Rocket Girls.