| A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 44 reviews)
Sales Rank: 7332
Category: Book
Author: Tony Horwitz
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Studio: Henry Holt and Co.
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Co.
Label: Henry Holt and Co.
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.5
ISBN: 0805076034
Dewey Decimal Number: 970.01
EAN: 9780805076035
ASIN: 0805076034
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The bestselling author of Blue Latitudes takes us on a thrilling and eye-opening voyage to pre-Mayflower America On a chance visit to Plymouth Rock, Tony Horwitz realizes he?s mislaid more than a century of American history, from Columbus?s sail in 1492 to Jamestown?s founding in 16-oh-something. Did nothing happen in between? Determined to find out, he embarks on a journey of rediscovery, following in the footsteps of the many Europeans who preceded the Pilgrims to America. An irresistible blend of history, myth, and misadventure, A Voyage Long and Strange captures the wonder and drama of first contact. Vikings, conquistadors, French voyageurs?these and many others roamed an unknown continent in quest of grapes, gold, converts, even a cure for syphilis. Though most failed, their remarkable exploits left an enduring mark on the land and people encountered by late-arriving English settlers. Tracing this legacy with his own epic trek?from Florida?s Fountain of Youth to Plymouth?s sacred Rock, from desert pueblos to subarctic sweat lodges?Tony Horwitz explores the revealing gap between what we enshrine and what we forget. Displaying his trademark talent for humor, narrative, and historical insight, A Voyage Long and Strange allows us to rediscover the New World for ourselves.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 American Discovery and Self-Identity Fueled by Myth January 2, 2009
A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE is Tony Horwitz's latest in his series of books that combine the history of a place with the author's often droll and insightful observations upon visiting those places today. (CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC is perhaps the best of these.)
This book takes up the series of voyages to North America leading to the arrival of the Mayflower in 1620. The history of these expeditions, from Leif Erikson's probable arrival at the northern tip of Newfoundland in the early 11th century to John Smith's voyages from the mid-Atlantic up through New England (which he named) in the early 17th, is relatively little known by most Americans.
A substantial part of this story concerns the Spanish expeditions of discovery, from the epic story of Christopher Columbus to the far less known tales of conquistadors like Francisco Vazquez de Coronado and Hernando de Soto who trekked deep into what is now the area of the southwestern and southeastern United States respectively. (De Soto traveled as far as the Mississippi.)
Horwitz gives credit to these explorers for overcoming great odds in making these journeys--for instance, as the author points out, the heavy armor worn by the Spanish, while defending themselves against Indian arrows, must have made mobility difficult, though obviously not impossible--while at the same time driving home the point that the native peoples they encountered by and large were devastated by the contact.
A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE is not quite as swift a ride as Horwitz's earlier outings. There are times when the history overwhelms a bit, and Horwitz's travel commentary drags. In the author's defense, genocide doesn't lend itself to amusing quips. Still, this book is worth the effort. Horwitz makes you see America's period of discovery in a way you probably haven't seen it before, with the legends stripped away.
The ultimate point of A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE is that it's the myths that capture Americans' imagination: we love the stories of the affair between John Smith and Pocahontas and of the First Thanksgiving even if they didn't really happen, or happen the way we think. In this way, we are not very different from the European explorers of America, who were motivated by fables of gold and wealth that did not exist--yet before their eyes lay the riches of America's natural resources.
(I recommend reading this book in hard copy over the unabridged audio version by John H. Mayer, whose voice, a cross between Rod Serling and Robert Forster, isn't well suited to this material. Tony Horwitz himself provides the audio for the abridged version; I recommend that if you need this book in audiobook format.)
between columbus and the pilgrims December 23, 2008
For people like me who spend our days continually amazed at our sheer ignorance, Horowitz's new book is perfect. My major in college was history, U.S. history, but the time between Columbus washing up in Hispaniola (todays D.R. and Haiti) in 1492 and the Pilgrims landing in 1620 was basically a complete blank. Horowitz seeks to fill that gap in his knowledge (and my own), by tracing the routes and landing spots of the early Viking, Spanish, and French explorers and colonizers. Historical travel writing at its best, filled with weirdo American's and laid-back Domican's, A Voyage Long and Strange is one worthwhile journey. Grade: A-
 Wait for it in paperback December 11, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was a huge fan of Confederates in the Attic. This book isn't as deep. At times it feels like he is trying to stretch the subject matter of a 250 page book into almost 400. A lot of it comes across as fill.
That said, it Horowitz is an entertaining writer. His style of bouncing from past to present is a creative way to keep the story and history come alive and seem relevant. This book will be enjoyed by anyone who has a sense of adventure and wanderlust, as many of the tales he writes about (the Vikings and Conquistadors) are fascinating and stand on their own.
Four and a half stars... December 1, 2008
I have been a long-time fan of Tony Horwitz, and always look forward to his historic-based, quirky and entertaining books. A Journey Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World follows his usual formula in traveling in the steps of history. In this case, he follows in the steps of America's early explorers.
While vacationing in New England, Horwitz visits Plymouth Rock (more like Plymouth Pebble, he laments). This former history major realized that what he didn't know about American's early explorers was a "chasm." He discovers that he "mislaid an entire century, the one separating Columbus's sail in 1492 from Jamestown's founding in 10-0-something." This story actually ends at Plymouth Rock, rather than begins.
As with his previous books, Horwitz sets off to travel the routes of the explorers that he studies. He begins with the Vikings. Then he switches to Columbus, Coronado, DeSoto and other Spanish explorers. It wasn't until the French made their appearance on American soil that the English finally arrived. So why is Plymouth a "rock star for tourists?" "Anglo bias seemed the obvious culprit, but it didn't altogether explain Americans' amnesia."
Like Horwitz, there was much that I didn't remember about early American history as well. I certainly didn't remember that Coronado traveled as far as Kansas from Mexico, or that DeSoto reached the Mississippi River from Florida. I never knew that the French had a presence in Florida. But Horwitz is known for presenting these facts with various anecdotes that are funny, ironic, thought-provoking or in some cases, tragic. In discussing our national celebration of Thanksgiving, Horwitz writes "FDR moved Thanksgiving ahead a week, to lengthen the Christmas shopping season. And there it has remained, a day of national gluttony, retail pageantry, TV football, and remembrance of the Pilgrims, a folk so austere that they regarded Christmas as a corrupt Papist holiday."
The one major omission (Horwitz admits as much) in A Journey Long and Strange is that the famous French explorer, Samuel Champlain, gets nary a mention. After reading David Hackett Fischer's wonderful new book, Champlain's Dream, I think that Champlain's absence makes the story less rich and cost him half a star in my rating. But overall, Horwitz sums things up in a way you won't find in most history books: "The country's European founding was slow and messy: a primordial slime of false starts and mutations that evolved, over generations, into English colonies and the United States."
 History is Fun November 30, 2008
Tony Horwitz does the leg work for us. Read and discover some of the history you were never taught in school. Add some zing to your home library, read Horwitz.
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