Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #226825 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 428 pages

Financial Times (FT Magazine), January 20, 2007
A spectacular book. Fernandez-Armesto specialises in works of
scrupulous scholarship and staggering breadth.

Review
A spectacular book. Fernandez-Armesto specialises in works of scrupulous scholarship and staggering breadth. (Angel Gurria-Quintana, Financial Times (FT Magazine) )

The fascination and charm of Pathfinders lie in the balance the book strikes between giving a broad overview and lingering on stories with documentary richness and narrative drive. As always in Fernandez-Armesto's work, the range of reference is wide, the writing felicitous and witty. (Ronald Wright, Times Literary Supplement )

Absorbing.... Pathfinders is a significant contribution to our knowledge of humankind's restless quest to explore and exploit Planet Earth. (Justin Marozzi, Literary Review )

Magisterial account....both concise and bold. (Hugh Thomson, The Independent )

Fernandez-Armesto takes us around the world in 428 fascinating pages. (Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times )

A meticulously researched account of centuries of ambition and world-spanning lunacy... Crisp, eloquent, written in consistently memorable prose. (Joanna Kavenna, New Statesman )

Fernandez-Armesto's human-centred story-telling and dazzling command of material convey the excitement of explorartion admirably (The Spectator, Andro Linklater )

His portraits are crisp and eloquent, written in consistently memorable prose. (Joanna Kavenna, New Statesman )

The temporal remit of Fernandez-Armesto's book is wonderfully broad. (Joanna Kavenna, New Statesman )

Geographical, 1 October 2006,
A splendid new book

Customer Reviews

Journey of Discovery
Felipe's Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration is a tremendous piece of writing, covering a vast topic in an eminently readable style. Whilst not claiming to be a sacrosanct text, Felipe presents some of the most commonly accepted explanations about aspects of this huge topic in a very pragmatic and reasonable way. Amongst the many topics covered are the following:

* A brief history of early human development and the dispersion of people around the globe
* How the natural environment around the Indian Ocean enabled a flourishing, ocean going trade system to develop many, many centuries ago
* Insights into how trade, romanticism and empire building inspired various European countries to start explorations around the globe
* How a desire to reach the Indo-Chinese trade routes led to the `discovery' of America: which was for a long time only seen as a barrier to the original goal
* A look at what is now left for the pathfinders of today and tomorrow

I started reading this book knowing that I knew very little of the history about how humanity had developed in different parts of the world, I have also found that my knowledge of the worlds geography was also limited and, as such, spent a lot of time referencing a small globe whilst reading. I would recommend this book for anyone with an interest in history or humanity or, as myself, the origins of world trade and commerce.

The route-finders
Finally we have received a book about exploration which on the contrary to Allen's book `Faber book of Exploration' gives wide and not only English perspective on the subject. And this is the greatest value of this volume in addition to truly spectacular review of human endurance in exploration. For Fernandez-Armesto, on the contrary to Allen, the world exploration is a continuous process, which is not only related to mare conquering lands and seas but mainly to human progress from the dark past to present time. Remarkable work showing from the first chapter to the last one how we came to global vision and one would say destruction by globalization. ( Chapter 9).

wise and wonderful
Fernandez Armesto has breathtaking ambition and scope. His history combines a fine sense for what makes a great yarn with sure-footed scholarship. He tells it with a flourish, and what an epic collection of tales he has to tell. This is what history should be, great entertainment, a welter of fasincating detail, and a grand perspective.
-Mick.