Ocean State Libraries

Journalist Horwitz retraces the 18th century voyages of explorer Captain Cook.

The age of discovery was at its peak in the eighteenth century, with bold adventurers charting the furthest reaches of the globe. Foremost among these explorers was Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy. Recent writers have viewed Cook through the lens of colonial exploitation, regarding him as a villain. While they raise important issues, many of these critical accounts overlook his major contributions to science, navigation and cartography. In...

A portrait of eighteenth-century explorer and adventurer Captain James Cook draws on Cook's own journals to describe his youth, his career in the Royal Navy, and his expeditions that charted the Pacific Ocean.