A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz
Written: Jul 11 '09
Product Rating:
Pros: This is an absolute must-read of fascinating history and humor.
Cons: None.
The Bottom Line: I recommend "A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World," by Tony Horwitz to anyone! It's easy to read and often quite funny, while revealing fascinating historical facts.
hempem's Full Review: Tony Horwitz - A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscov...
From Vikings to Pilgrims, this delightful book by Pulitzer Prize winning author Tony Horwitz uncovers historical facts in a way that is exciting and, at times, quite humorous. The neat thing about his books is that they are also "travelogues" - he actually follows ancient routes and travels to the places he is researching and makes history come alive. "A Voyage Long and Strange," should be required reading for high school students in my humble opinion, and is so easy to read that they would enjoy it, too. It's more accurate than many of our history books still in circulation, but it is written without the extremes of what I call protest history - "COLUMBUS WAS A CANNIBAL!" - swinging to opposite extremes.
Balance and objectivity are a part of all Tony Horwitz' works - you get the feeling he would be a cool person to have coffee with and chat; very laid back and a good listener. He would have to be. He seems to elicit some really good stuff from the people he meets on his journeys - perhaps they open up to him because of his non-judgmental approach and curiosity.
ANYHOO, you can tell I'm a huge Tony Horwitz fan, first discovering his book, "Confederates in the Attic" which explores his adventures in the Southern States, then "Baghdad Without a Map" which was written just before the war in Iraq began, and finding both of these books difficult to put down, I moved on to his adventures in Australia, "One for the Road." I missed "Blue Latitudes" which explores the journeys of Captain Cook - it is next on my list.
Beginning and ending at Plymouth Rock, Horwitz travels as far North as Newfoundland to trace the Vikings discovery of the Continent, and as far South as the Dominican Republic, following the journeys of Columbus. I don't want to leave the wrong impression about Horwitz' writing style - yes, it is easy to read and often humorous, but he covers very serious issues that come up whenever a discussion of the European "Rediscovery" of the New World took place. The brutal treatment of natives as sub-humans and the way this treatment still affects modern-day attitudes and hostilities in different parts of the Continent surprised me in some ways.
One example of this was how the Spanish Conquistador Juan de Onate punished a group of Acomas who had killed 13 men - he ordered one foot cut off or one hand cut off and sentenced them to 20 years of slavery to Spaniards. Later he was punished for cruelty - banned from his colony. Boo-hoo. Jump to modern times, and the Acomas had to tolerate a huge 12 foot tall bronze statue of Onate erected at the side of the highway. However, one day, in 1998, his giant foot went "missing" - expertly and sneakily removed and never found. This amazing story reflects so clearly how generations have not forgotten the cruelty of their Spanish invaders, and explains the ongoing animosity in the Southwest between certain groups of people.
The truth behind so many myths is revealed one explorer or settler at a time, from Columbus to De Soto to John Smith and Pocohontas - Ponce de Leon and De Vaca and Coronado . . . explorers I was unfamiliar with such as Ribault and Menendez and Gosnold (perhaps I am alone in my lack of knowledge here!). The stories are brutal and so many men met terrible ends - dying in poverty after major discoveries, or in disgrace after not finding the gold that seemed to be the goal of most expeditions.
Some of the most enjoyable reading is when Mr. Horwitz visits the cities that claim to be historic points of interest (often incorrectly) and his encounters with people wherever he goes. This is what transforms a book about history into a book that is living, breathing and highly amusing at times. From boating on the Mississippi at a place where even the locals refused to venture, to participating in a history fair in full metal Conquistador-era garb with other reenactors, you can't help but laugh at some of his adventures.
In catching some of the more subtle statements and attitudes of the people Horwitz encounters and letting the reader in on their conversations, I was almost reminded of Sacha Baron Cohen's experiments in revealing on film the sometimes "politically incorrect" attitudes that are expressed by the common folk, minus the element of making a fool out of the people he encounters. The "Borat" star is actually Cambridge educated and terribly intelligent, but I prefer a more civilized approach to unearthing such things!
There is such an enormous amount of detailed and fascinating material in this book, presented in such a light and easy-to-read fashion, that I feel as if I'm not giving a good enough representation of all that it contains . . . it is genuine, well-researched history combined with present day exploration of the same territory and modern-day encounters. I couldn't put it down.
Obviously, I highly recommend "A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World," and truthfully, any book written by Tony Horwitz. Don't use it as a book to go to sleep by, however - I've stayed up until 2:30 am several nights in a row reading until I was exhausted. Yes, it's that good.
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