Product Description
Why do humans long to reach beyond the confines of our planet?Why, in an age when our voices routinely bounce off satellites to around the world and back, hasn't a human set foot on the moon for 30 years?

A visionary work by the most provocative and original thinker on technology and human communication since Marshall McLuhan, RealSpace traces the neat marriage of communication and transportation --talking and walking--that recently ended in a jarring separation.Throughout recent history, Levinson shows, rail lines and telegraphs, cars and radios, airplanes and television have been coupled in a synergy that allowed us to reach the places we heard about. But with the invention of the Internet and cell phones, our verbal reach has exceeded our corporeal grasp.

With a lucid, reflective style that spans philosophy, science fiction, religion, and technology, RealSpace reopens the final frontier, delving into the roots of our desire to know what's out there and exploring how we might actually make it one day.Packed with exciting, innovative, even revolutionary thinking about our future,RealSpace is essential reading for everyone who has ever sat at a desk, gazed into the distance and imagined boarding a space shuttle.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Gem of Reflection
I am sorry to say that with all the reading I do, this is the first time I have come across Paul Levinson.This is a gem of a book, and I will attend to anything else he write, and hope to hear him in person someday.

The author, the book, and by the authors account, California, converges four vectors:

- Cyberspace where its just information, not "real"
- Outer Space, where he believes we need to go
- Inner Space, with hightened spiritual awareness being important
- RealSpace, which only live beings with all their senses can engage

I found this gem to be absorbing and it rounded out my Sunday morning reading quite nicely.Some bullets I took away:

- No senses of smell, touch, taste in cyberspace
- Knowledge is not Experience
- Walking and talking are intertwined
- Cell phone is antidote to Interent, restores ability to work in the real world and not be chained to a computer or cubicle
- Makes care for business, not governments, to fund space exploration
- Discusses robots as useful for some things but no substitute for humans
- Discusses how much we missed in our evaluation of Mars until we actually had a real soil sample with traces of bacteria
- Wants a World Spaceport Center at WTC site in NYC, adds chapter on terrorism and sspace.

The selected bibliography, with annotation, is quite remarkable.I am only familiar with a third of what is catalogued there.

This book helped me understand Jeff Bezos better, and that is always useful.

The author buys into the myths of 9/11.This is disappointing.

Some other books that his is a complement to:
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
The Age of Missing Information
Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin
Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth'
The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past
The Lessons of History
Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography
Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West
One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
Imagine: What America Could Be in the 21st Century

Status quo repackaged and overpriced
Here is a book that seems always on the verge of making a difference, or at least a point, but never gets there. Why did the U.S. space program progress so slowly after the Moon landings while communication technology grew by leaps and bounds? That's Levinson's central question and I'll be damned if I know what his answer is after reading this book. Chapter 4 ends with the promise that chapter 5 will discuss it, but instead there's a discourse on California culture during the Space Age, and how Natural philosophy has only recently eclipsed moral and intellectual philosophy. Huh? I would have appreciated something prescriptive to connect the dots. The closest thing to an intellectual risk Levinson takes is to say that humans will gain a better picture of their place in the universe if they explore space personally, not just with robots. Oh, and perhaps NASA (he sees no serious alternative to government space programs) is not packaging the experience right. Really? There's not even enough in here to tell whether Levinson is wrong. The book is a charming mind-screw littered with historical nuggets, such as how Diego Columbus's books about his father's voyages of discovery became best-sellers. But for $27.95 suggested retail, I expected something a lot more bold and relevant.

A Good Guidebook Offering a Rationale for Human Spaceflight
This is a helpful handbook for advocates of human spaceflight. In the summer of 2004 esteemed space scientist James A. Van Allen, asked the poignant question, "Is human spaceflight obsolete?" He added: "Does human spaceflight continue to serve a compelling cultural purpose and/or our national interest?...Risk is high, cost is enormous, science is insignificant. Does anyone have a good rationale for sending humans into space?" Paul Levinson has an answer, one that should at least prove convincing to those wanting to believe even if it might not convince James Van Allen.

Levinson says essentially that while cyberspace made virtual exploration of almost anything possible it has also demonstrated an under-appreciated fact of the human existence, cyberspace is a pale comparison to reality. We continue to seek firsthand human experience to understand and experience the universe. He addresses the full range of rationales for spaceflight, suggesting that the human desire to experience and explore is what makes us fully human. This is a work of advocacy that is poignant and provocative, suggesting that our desire to fly in space is just as much spiritual and eternal as it is practical, political, economic, and military.

For any science collection or reader
Cyberspace is part of daily living, with most people spending part or most of each day on the Internet. But what happens to reality when technology moves more and more into the virtual world? Realspace addresses a myriad of issues and concerns in the course of such a move; from the human need to explore and the lack of efforts to further space exploration to why humans need to constantly expand knowledge bases. Realspace is an essential, thought-provoking purchase for any science collection or reader. ... Read more

Product Description
Twin Crowns - Age of Exploration Fantasy is a campaign setting and rules expansion for Dungeons & Dragons® Third Edition, published by Wizards of the Coast®. You need the D&D Core Rulebooks to use this expansion. The Twin Crowns world has a flavor like none other, combining the high fantasy elements with historical elements of the Age of Exploration.

Customer Reviews (1)

High Quality d20 Supplement
The best thing about this supplement is the naval rules provided.The navigation mechanics make good use of the d20 system, are simple enough to integrate into any campaign, and provide for colorful and realistic results.Rules for naval combat are likewise straightforward, balancing ease of play and realism quite well.

The bulk of the supplement is campaign-specific information.An interesting pantheon/cosmology is provided with a huge pile of religion-specific feats.A lot of interesting ideas here which can easily be grafted onto any fantasy RPG campaign.Good sections on ritual magic and prestige classes.Some fresh ideas in terms of how the traditional D+D races interact, but on the whole I found the human cultures described overly derivative ("Oh, these must be the Russian guys living next to the German guys just north of the Spanish guys").I'll throw out the campaign world and run an Age of Exploration fantasy campaign set in a more historically-based earth.A minor quibble though, for an excellent product.Well worth the money for any GM. ... Read more

Product Description
The work of John Charles Fremont, Richard Byrd, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, John Wesley Powell, Susan Cooper, Rachel Carson, and Loren Eiseley represents a widely divergent body of writing. Yet despite their range of genres—including exploration narratives, technical reports, natural histories, scientific autobiographies, fictional utopias, nature writing, and popular scientific literature—these seven authors produced strikingly connected representations of nature and the practice of science in America from about 1840 to 1970. Michael A. Bryson provides a thoughtful examination of the authors, their work, and the ways in which science and nature unite them.

Visions of the Land explores how our environmental attitudes have influenced and been shaped by various scientific perspectives from the time of western expansion and geographic exploration in the mid-nineteenth century to the start of the contemporary environmental movement in the twentieth century. Bryson offers a literary-critical analysis of how writers of different backgrounds, scientific training, and geographic experiences represented nature through various kinds of natural science, from natural history to cartography to resource management to ecology and evolution, and in the process, explored the possibilities and limits of science itself.

Visions of the Land examines the varied, sometimes conflicting, but always fascinating ways in which we have defined the relations among science, nature, language, and the human community. Ultimately, it is an extended meditation on the capacity of using science to live well within nature. ... Read more

Product Description
Major explorations continued after the Age of Discovery. Bythe early seventeenth century, vessels were sufficientlywell built and their navigators competent enough to travelto virtually anywhere on the planet by sea. In the 17thcentury Dutch explorers such as Willem Jansz and AbelTasman explored the coasts of Australia. European navalexploration mapped the Western and northern coasts ofAustralia, but the east coast had to wait for over acentury, while in the eighteenth century it was Englishexplorer James Cook who mapped much of Polynesia. Cooktraveled as far as Alaska. In the later 18th century thePacific became a focus of renewed interest, with northernEuropeans exploring its last unknown regions and the North- American west coast. The centers of the Americas had beenreached by the mid 16th century, although there wereunexplored areas until the 18th and 19th centuries. ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! TheHeroic Age of Antarctic Exploration describes anera which extended from the end of the 19th centuryto the early 1920s. During this 25-year period theAntarcticcontinent became the focus of aninternational effort which resulted in intensivescientific and geographical exploration, sixteenmajor expeditions being launched from eightdifferent countries. The common factor in theseexpeditions was the limited nature of the resourcesavailable to them before advances in transport andcommunication technologies revolutionised the workof exploration. This meant that each expeditionbecame a feat of endurance that tested its personnelto physical and mental limits, and sometimes beyond.The "heroic" label, bestowed later, recognised theadversities which had to be overcome by thesepioneers, some of whom did not survive theexperience; during this period 17 expedition membersdied. During the course of these expeditions thegeographical and magnetic poles were both reached. ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Ernest Edward Mills Joyce (c.1875 ? 2 May 1940) was a Royal Naval seaman and explorer who participated in four Antarctic expeditions during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, early in the early 20th century. He served under both Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton; as a member of the Ross Sea party in Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Joyce earned an Albert Medal for his actions in bringing the stricken party to safety, after a traumatic journey on the Great Ice Barrier. Joyce came from a humble seafaring background and began his naval career as a boy seaman in 1891. His Antarctic experiences began 10 years later, when he joined Scott's Discovery Expedition as an Able Seaman. In 1907 Shackleton recruited Joyce to take charge of dogs and sledges on the Nimrod Expedition. Subsequently Joyce was engaged in a similar capacity for Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition in 1911, but left the expedition before it departed for the Antarctic ... Read more

Product Description
Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
Farthest South, Ferdinand Magellan, Francis Drake, Garcia de Nodal expedition, James Cook, James Weddell, Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, Southern Cross Expedition, Discovery Expedition, Nimrod Expedition, Amundsen's South Pole expedition, Terra Nova Expedition. ... Read more

Product Description
Africa in Europe, in two volumes, is an interdisciplinary work about Europeans that demonstrates fluid boundaries and connections between them and Africans from antiquity until the present. Written by a scholar with expertise that includes anthropology, social history, and international relations, the subject matter of this fascinating work ranges from science to art and invites much new thinking about racism, territoriality, citizenship, and frontiers in a world that is increasingly globalized. ... Read more

Product Description
Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Outstanding History of Exploration between the 17th and 19th Centuries
William H. Goetzmann, long of the University of Texas, has been a star in the study of the history of exploration for more than forty years. He first gained broad recognition for his Pulitzer Prize-winning "Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientists in the Winning of the American West" (Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), which traced in scintillating prose the expeditions of what he referred to as the period of settlement and investment (1845-1860) and the era of the great surveys (1860-1900). This work, "New Lands, New Men," is in some respects an expansion of that earlier book. He makes the case here that there have been two great ages of exploration. The first originated out of the ideas of the Renaissance, was largely fueled by a quest for greater wealth, and served to incorporate into the European sphere of influence widely dispersed regions of the world.

"New Lands, New Men" takes as its subject a second great age of exploration that began in the seventeenth century and lasted through the nineteenth century. It incorporates much of the understanding offered in Goetzmann's 1966 work, but broadens the theme to the world as whole rather than focusing on the American West. It takes as core components the Lewis and Clark expedition to the west of North America from 1803 to 1806, the efforts of Sir Richard Burton and Stanley and Livingston in Africa, John C. Frémont's Rocky Mountain expeditions, and travels to the sources of the Amazon River in South America and the Nile River in Africa. It also included the efforts of seafarers to map islands and the poles; and involved such international scientific endeavors as the International Polar Year of 1882-1883, which cooperatively sought to obtain scientific and ethnographic data about the Arctic. This second age of exploration effectively closed with the conclusion of the last great expeditions into the interiors of the continents in the later nineteenth century and the activities of individuals like John Wesley Powell and efforts by such organizations as the U.S. Geological Survey. It, too, led to a massive accumulation of data about these lands new to European civilization and transformed the world with the gathering of much new information.

Goetzmann makes the case that this second great age of exploration, contrasting what had gone before, emphasized the advance of science and human progress. He argues that it effectively opened with Charles Marie de La Condamine's 1735-1749 expedition to South America to test Newton's hypothesis that the Earth is an oblate spheroid. That expedition employed an astronomer, a mathematician, a botanist, a surveyor, and engineers and equipped them with the latest instruments to maximize their data collection. Through this effort, and others of a similar nature, Goetzmann believes that "science and art came together to change the thought of Europe" (p. 39).

The result, he concludes, is that western civilization made a "quantum leap" in knowledge about the natural world that humans live in (p. 269). Goetzmann offers here an enthralling account of this effort; it is an accessible and thought-provoking narrative of "the good old days of the explorer-adventurer among the winds and currents of storm-tossed seas at the very ends of the earth" (p. 362). It is a superb reading experience for even those casually interested in the subject. Enjoy. ... Read more

Product Description

In 1607 Henry Hudson was an obscure English sea captain. By 1610 he was an internationally renowned explorer. He had made two voyages in search of a Northeast Passage to the Orient and had discovered the Spitzbergen Islands and their valuable whaling grounds. Hudson had sailed farther north than any other European before him. In 1609, sailing for the Dutch, he had explored the Hudson River and had made possible a Dutch colony in America.

In 1610 Hudson sailed from England on what would be his most famous voyage - to search for a Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic. This was also his last exploration. Only a few of the men under his command lived to see England again. Hudson's expedition was one of great discovery and even greater disaster. Extreme Arctic conditions and Hudson's own questionable leadership resulted in the most infamous mutiny in Canadian history, and a mystery that remains unsolved.

Product Description
The excavation of the shipwreck La Belle grabbed public attention in Texas, across the nation, and overseas. Especially enthralled with the discoveries from the ship were schoolchildren.

Pam Wheat-Stranahan, named by the Texas Historical Commission to head the educational efforts associated with the excavation's traveling exhibit, continued her work on this project after leaving the THC. Now, her teacher's guide, which includes a DVD of acclaimed documentary director Alan Govenar's films The Shipwreck of La Belle and Dreams of Conquest (about Fort St. Louis and Presidio La Bahia), is available for use in an exploration and discovery unit. Ideal for grades 4-8, the teacher's guide and films are designed for use with the book From a Watery Grave.

Wheat-Stranahan has incorporated the standards for national social studies and the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. The resulting guide is user-friendly for teachers and provides interactive learning opportunities for students not just about Texas history but also concerning the age of discovery and the precursors to the American nation. ... Read more

Product Description
Perspectives from the Past is the mostflexible and substantial reader for use in thetwo-semester Western Civilizations course.Thewealth of selections accommodates most anycourse curriculum, and the readings may be usedon their own or in conjunction with atextbook. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Very good, especially on earlier explorations
Read this book with hot coffee, cocoa or tea at hand, because you will feel the polar chill start to surround you.

I had little knowledge of Arctic explorations before Peary and not much more of the Antarctic besides the trio of Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton. This book filled in a lot of gaps, especially on early Arctic exploration.

Unfortunately, the question about whether Peary actually reached the North Pole or not -- and if he didn't, was it sextant mismeasurements or fraud -- is only briefly and tangentially discussed. Many polar authors and experts claim he didn't, but last year an explorer duplicated his fast-paced feat.

The contingencies of history are interesting, as this book shows. Amundsen had originally planned for the North Pole, but Peary's triumph led him to look south.

British humanity excluded dogs forthe Antarctic mush; British stupidity refused to use Norwegian horse snowshoes, which might have let Scott beat Amundsen and return alive. If not stupidity and stubbornness, stupidity and sentimentality, leading Scott to add a fifth to his original four-man party, doomed him. The psychology behind this and the Scott-Shackelton dustup was also tred just lightly.

But, trying to reach the Arctic by ramming a ship into ice floes, or via ballooon? Read this book for for the lust for the poles, an addiction of human adventure.

Polar Explorations 101
If you are looking for an introduction/overview text on polar explorations, Maxtone-Graham's book is your ticket.I have always gotten the explorers confused.So,I found it a very helpful book.Like the other reviewers, I, too, was struck by the author's not including Shackleton's adventures in Anartica, probably the best story of them all.

Dress warmly while reading.

A Good Overview of Polar Exploration
To write a book which covers the expansive history of polar exploration is a large undertaking.This book does this that.With a sometimes dim view of successes, the author methodically covers the major polar explorationsof both the North and the South Poles.Although Graham can sometimesmiss the glory of what some people did, Shackelton's Endurance expeditionand Amundsen's Northwest Passage voyage, he does give a great overview ofsome of the lesser known facts of Polar exploration.If you arelooking for a good place to start in learning about Polar explorers this isa good place to start

Early polar exploration, with a British point of view
Safe Return Doubtful is a very interesting and well-written book, but suffers from the common disease of polar writing: glorification of suffering.The British being the true pioneers in the field of needlesssuffering, the book naturally emphasizes the British view of the polarexpeditions.As a consequence, Amundsen is villified and Scott glorified,for example.Strangely, the book doesn't discuss the greatest, mostheroic, polar expedition-Shackleton's attempt to cross Antarctica.

Allin all, this is a worthwhile read if you are a polar exploration buff. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (23)

A wholly fascinating autobiography
Have you ever wanted to be an adventurer?But, did not cherish
'getting your feet wet' on a milder note, or be subjected to something
a bit more dangerous to ponder?

The last gentleman adventurer Edward Beauclerk Maurice has, in my
opinion, given the reader of this extraordinary book the unique
experience {in the comfortable armchair} of living the exhilarating
beauty of the Arctic Realm. His captivating memoir puts us there!

Why did he write only one book?

Dag Stomberg
St. Andrews, Scotland

beautifully written, a rarity in this literary genre
This is a wonderful memoir, beautifully and thoughtfully written, which is highly unusual for books about the far north.(Another exception that proves the rule would be The Barren Lands, about another part of northern Canada.You would think that it is written decades ago (except for the elegant writing), but it was published only in the last several years.One gets a real sense of the author's experiences, the people he lived with, what they ate, what they did, how they lived and worked.A real treat.

Excellent Partial Autobiography of Edward Beauclerk Maurice
Excellent biographical history snapshot of Edward Maurice's life with the eastern Canada Inuit people -- a view of life at two Hudson's Bay Company posts by a sensitive and tallented (learned to speak their language fluently) young Englishman who was not afraid to live on the edge of the Arctic.

One of the best literary investments I've made in the past quarter century!

I felt like I was in the arctic with the main character!
I had never really read anything like this book before, but for some reason the story's unique setting, the Arctic, drew me in. The main character is so endearing, hard-working, honest, and lovable that you cheer for him throughout all his challenges and problems. He is a good example of how we could all learn from other cultures with respect and compassion. I was sad when I had finished because I wanted to know more about the rest of his life. Well worth your time and effort!!!!!

Fantastic, observant novel about Arctic life and Hudson's Bay Company.
Of the many, many books I've read involving Arctic expeditions and experiences, this one is one of the best, among the ranks of Gontran De Poncins' 'Kabloona' and Vladimir Albanov's 'In The Land of the White Death.'I found it to have a lot in common with 'Kabloona': while the locations are rather far, the experiences are similar.'The Last Gentleman Adventurer' also provides a lot of information about the Hudson's Bay Company, which is a fascinating chapter in northern Canadian history.

At the time of the documented experiences, this young man was essentially alone (in the beginning among 2 others) in one of the most remote outposts on earth.His interest and respect for Inuit life develops and broadens throughout the book, and in his adventures he meets many different characters.What is delightful about this character is that he sees the Inuit with respect to his own morals, ethics and upbringing, but without judging them.He spends a number of years in Pangnirtung and moves down to Frobisher Bay.Curiously, his last year (alluded to in the novel to be spent at Southampton Island) was not documented in the book, and I am unsure of why.

I found his relationships with the Inuit people in this book to be very inspiring; his encounters with the often harsh world around him allowed him to grow and adapt.While frustration was often present with one situation or another, he left his post at Ward Inlet with an incredible love and respect for his Inuit friends; while warned in the beginning not to become too wrapped up with "those people," it is the curiosity and willingness to learn that makes this novel, 'Kabloona' and also the adventures of Stefansson incredibly interesting.While whaling and exploration often exploited the talents of the Arctic people, there are few memoirs of people who sought to learn and survive with their knowledge. ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, founded in London on June 9, 1788, was a British club dedicated to the exploration of West Africa, with the mission of discovering the origin and course of the Niger River and the location of Timbuktu, the "lost city" of gold. The formation of this group was effectively the "beginning of the age of African exploration". Organized by a dozen titled members of London?s upper-class establishment and led by Sir Joseph Banks, the African Association felt that it was the great failing of the Age of Enlightenment that, in a time when men could sail around the world, the geography of the Dark Continent remained almost entirely uncharted. The Ancient Greeks and Romans knew more about the interior of Africa than did the English of the 18th century. Motivated by sincere desires for scientific knowledge and the abolition of the slave trade, yet not averse to gaining opportunities for British commerce, the wealthy members each pledged to contribute five guineas per year to recruiting and funding expeditions from England to Africa. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
The Age of Discovery is an introductory text for undergraduate courses in maritime history and the age of exploration. This series of essays, developed from an NEH Summer Institute in Early Modern Maritime History at the John Carter Brown Library, summarizes the latest interpretations in this field, introducing students to the wider literature. There is no other up-to-date, basic text currently available in this field. ... Read more

Product Description
A brilliant new account of the Voyager space program-its history, scientific impact, and cultural legacy

Launched in 1977, the two unmanned Voyager spacecraft have completed their Grand Tour to the four outer planets, and they are now on course to become the first man-made objects to exit our solar system. To many, this remarkable achievement is the culmination of a golden age of American planetary exploration, begun in the wake of the 1957 Sputnik launch. More than this, Voyager may be one of the purest expressions of exploration in human history.

For more than five hundred years the West has been powered by the impulse to explore, to push into a wider world. In this highly original book, Stephen Pyne recasts Voyager in the tradition of Magellan, Columbus, Cook, Lewis and Clark, and other landmark explorers. The Renaissance and Enlightenment-the First and Second Ages of Discovery- sent humans across continents and oceans to find new worlds. In the Third Age, expeditions have penetrated the Antarctic ice, reached the floors of the oceans, and traveled to the planets by new means, most spectacularly via semi-autonomous robot. Voyager probes how the themes of motive and reward are stunningly parallel through all three ages. Voyager, which gave us the first breathtaking images of Jupiter and Saturn, changed our sense of our own place in the universe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Voyager
Wonderful - should be read by everyone, espescially those interested in space explration, science and engineering.

Lack of focus kills a great idea
Stephen Pyne had a great idea when he started out writing this book. I actually like how he tried to write about the different era's of exploration and tried to include the voyager probe as just the latest version of mankind's quest to learn more about the universe or world around him.

Sadly, very poor writing and execution leads to a bogged down story and just when it seems we are getting revved up into the chronicle of Voyager,Pyne pulls us back with a some aside about human exploration.The final 75 pages are just fluff which in my opinion degrades the book.Basically this book is not very good!

A Real Snoozer
I tried several times to read this book thinking that sooner or later I would get into the 'good part' concentrating on the Voyager space craft. It kept putting me to sleep so I eventually gave up and tossed it into the used book recycle bin at my local library. I found the author's writing style to be too professorial and bombastic to be entertaining. The good reviews I based my decision upon to buy this book were very misleading as to the content and reader enjoyment to be expected. Better luck next time.

Seeking knowlege and understanding
Stephen Pyne's Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds in the Third Great Age of Discovery is a journey in itself. Those seeking a space adventure and nothing more will be surprised and possibly confused because Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds in the Third Great Age of Discovery is so much more than that. The space stuff is in there, but so is an exploration of exploration itself, the history and motivations for societal investment in seeking new worlds, whether they are distant planets, deep sea rift zones, or new continents. All graced by Pyne's remarkable and delightful gift for prose. This book is a work of literary art as much as of history, as are so many others in the Pyne oeuvre. Steve Pyne is a literary master, a leading historian, a weaver of words, a lyrical scribe, a story teller, a humorist, an indefatigable researcher, and most especially, a teacher. For true aficionados, his Voice and Vision: A Guide to Writing History and Other Serious Nonfiction is one of those remarkable and special All-Star pedagogies: a how-to-write-a-great-book-book written by a champion of the sport.

Too much philosphy
I was expecting a lot more about the two Voyagers, but most of the book seemed to be about "the philosophical underpinnings of human exploration."Seemed to me that the author stretched the connections between 15-17th century explorations with the missions of the two Voyagers.I skimmed and skipped many pages. ... Read more