A comprehensive, highly readable reference

This is an authoritative, one-stop resource for essential information on the exploration of North America, from alleged pre-Columbian explorers to polar expeditions in the twentieth century. Completely up-to-date in content and historical approach, the book is divided into seven sections, each covering a major area of exploration. Vivid, narrative entries bring to life early expeditions (e.g., African and Scandinavian voyages, real and apocryphal), voyages of European explorers, Western expeditions, and explorations of the Arctic. From the Atlantic seaboard to the Appalachians to the Mississippi to the northernmost regions, readers will discover the Native nations, geographical features, private and governmental institutions, and settlements that played a role in the history of exploring the continent. Maps, photos, and sidebars with lively first-person accounts from contemporary diaries, reports, and news accounts round out this thorough examination of the numerous adventures taken around the continent.

Michael Golay has published five books on American history, including most recently The Ruined Land. He lives in Exeter, New Hampshire.
John Bowman is the Editor of the Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography and numerous other reference works. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Readers of the bestselling novel, "The Killer Angels," or viewers of Ted Turner's movie "Gettysburg" and PBS's "The Civil War" have become familiar with Chamberlain and Alexander, two men who made their mark on history. This dual biography of the two officers-one Union and one Confederate-describes a number of Civil War battles, from Bull Run to Appomattox. The climax of each man's career, just as in the war itself, however, came at Gettysburg, where Chamberlain held Little Round Top and Alexander, commanding Lee's artillery, desperately tried to pave the way for Pickett's charge. Fast-paced, full of the feel and texture of battle, this book is also very much a personal story of the two men. Maine's Chamberlain was a 19th-century archetype: a romantic fighting the first of the world's modern wars while straining to interpret the carnage through the idiom of the knightly joust. Alexander, of the Georgia planter class, viewed war with a clear, cold eye, casting a long glance forward to our own more technical century. Their lives subsequent to the war are emblematic of the American society that emerged from the cathartic conflict between North and South. The original hardcover was published without illustrations or maps. These have been added for the new paperback edition.