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The Wide Wide Sea
- Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
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Publisher's Summary
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An epic account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook’s death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day.
“Sides has mastered the art of you-are-there historical narrative. A thrilling and necessary update to one of history’s most consequential cultural collisions."—John Vaillant, New York Times bestselling author of Fire Weather and The Tiger
On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage 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 Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment?
Hampton Sides’ bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic 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–the famed naturalist Joseph Banks accompanied him on his first voyage, and Cook has been called one of the most important figures of the Age of Enlightenment. He was also deeply interested in the native people he encountered. In fact, his stated mission was 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 the Pacific, including the east coast of Australia, and initiated first European contact with numerous peoples. He treated his crew well, and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment.
Yet 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 ordered 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’s imperial rivals could, and to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Whatever Cook’s intentions, his scientific efforts were the sharp edge of the colonial sword, and the ultimate effects of first contact were catastrophic for Indigenous people around the world. The tensions between Cook’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 Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to the fatal encounter.
At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers.
What the critics say
“Gripping . . . It isn’t possible in this short space to describe Side’s hair-raising accounts of the journey . . . Sides recreates the newness of the experience, the vast differences in and among Indigenous cultures, and natural phenomena that were as terrifying as they were wondrous."—The Washington Post
"Hampton Sides, an acclaimed master of the nonfiction narrative, has taken on Cook’s story and retells it for the 21st century . . . The result is a work that will enthrall Cook’s admirers, inform his critics and entertain everyone in between."—Los Angeles Times
“The great explorer’s ill-starred last mission and violent death in Hawaii are recreated in swashbuckling detail…an astounding tale and Sides delivers the exciting episodes with a pressing narrative urgency. The cast of characters is a joy."–The Sunday Times (London)
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What listeners say about The Wide Wide Sea
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Raton de Biblioteca
- 2024-04-11
WONDERFUL
I've read a lot of books about the nautical adventures of British and other seafarers in 18th century.
Just when I thought I had heard or read it all, this book blew me out the water. No pun intended. I could not stop listening!
Superb research and enough reflection for a 21st century reader. In the immortal words of LP Hartley, "the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there."
And the narration was EXCELLENT. So important to do justice to a great book which is not always the case.
Loved it all. And a keeper in my library.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2024-04-20
Well told.
Great start to finish. Well researched and great narration. Great start to finish. Well researched and great narration.
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