• A New Republic Best Book of the Year • The Globalist Top Books of the Year • Winner of the Maine Literary Award for Non-fiction
Particularly relevant in understanding who voted for who during presidential elections, this is an endlessly fascinating look at American regionalism and the eleven “nations” that continue to shape North America
According to award-winning journalist and historian...

A comprehensive, highly readable reference This is an authoritative, one-stop resource for essential information on the exploration of North America, from alleged pre-Columbian explorers to polar expeditions in the twentieth century. Completely up-to-date in content and historical approach, the book is divided into seven sections, each covering a major area of exploration. Vivid, narrative entries bring to life early expeditions (e.g., African and...

For some early explorers, the trip to the New World wasn't their first adventure. Readers will be fascinated by these daring men and what drove them to discover new lands. Each has an amazing and unique story.

Reconstructs the life of Gudrid, a Viking woman who, according to Icelandic sagas, arrived in the New World some five hundred years before Columbus, spent three years there, and gave birth to a baby, before sailing home.

Italian explorer John Cabot sailed to the New World under the flag of England in 1496. His travels through Canada are sketchy due to his flimsy record log and his disappearance during his third voyage. Despite never finding the riches or the Northwest Passage he sought, Cabot's discoveries led the charge for the English colonization of North America. This resource examines Cabot's early life, his appeals to European monarchs to fund an expedition,...

On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook 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 Hawai'i, 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...

"The year is 2112, and it's the apocalypse exactly as expected: rivers receding, oceans rising, civilization crumbling. Humanity has given up hope, except for a group of Indigenous outcasts who have discovered a time travel portal in a cave in the desert and figured out where everything took a turn for the worst: America. Convinced that the only way to save the world is to rewrite its past, they send one of their own--a reluctant linguist named Tad--on...

Tells the story of how Europeans got to know the size and shape of the northern part of the New World, an area discovered over a period of four centuries.