Books available six weeks before book club date.
\nAbout the book:
\n"From New York Times bestselling au thor Hampton Sides\, an epic account of the most momentous voyage of the A ge of Exploration\, which culminated in Captain James Cook&rsquo\;s death in Hawaii\, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to t his day
\nOn July 12th\, 1776\, Captain James Cook\, already lionize d as the greatest explorer in British history\, set off on his third voyag e in his ship the HMS Resolution . Two-and-a-half years later\, on a beach on the island of Hawaii\, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawai ians. How did Cook\, who was unique among captains for his respect for Ind igenous peoples and cultures\, come to that fatal moment?
\nHampton Sides&rsquo\; bravura account of Cook&rsquo\;s last journey both wrestles with Cook&rsquo\;s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titani c efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration in the 1700s . Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship\, his humane leadership\, and his dedication to science-&ndash\;the famed naturalist Joseph Banks ac companied him on his first voyage\, and Cook has been called one of the mo st important figures of the Age of Enlightenment. He was also deeply inter ested in the native people he encountered. In fact\, his stated mission wa s to return a Tahitian man\, Mai\, who had become the toast of London\, to his home islands. On previous expeditions\, Cook mapped huge swaths of th e Pacific\, including the east coast of Australia\, and initiated first Eu ropean contact with numerous peoples. He treated his crew well\, and endea vored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and witho ut judgment.
\nYet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial\, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline\, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically\, he orde red violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. This may have had something to do with his secret orders\, which were to chart and claim lands before Britain&rsquo\;s imperial rivals could\, and to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Whatever Cook&rsquo\;s intention s\, his scientific efforts were the sharp edge of the colonial sword\, and the ultimate effects of first contact were catastrophic for Indigenous pe ople around the world. The tensions between Cook&rsquo\;s overt and covert missions came to a head on the shores of Hawaii. His first landing there was harmonious\, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pac ific Northwest and Alaska\, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians le d to the fatal encounter.
\nAt once a ferociously-paced story of adv enture on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities an d consequences of the Age of Exploration\, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major wo rk from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers."
\n-From Goo dreads.com
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ncel my registration and return the book in advance\, \;then \;I u
nderstand that I will not be eligible for free books in future book clubs
(although I will be able to attend and source the book in another way).&nb
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