![]() ![]() ![]() It may have been something about the writing style that didn't appeal to me as I could only read it in short bursts. The book relies heavily on the account by Pigafetta, who chronicled the voyage, supplementing to add balance to Pigafetta's near hero-worship of his "captain general."I thought it was a good book, though for some reason I can't quite put my finger on, this was not an easy read for me. He did not have a particularly enlightened view about the native people he encountered (and few of the early explorers did admittedly) so parts were hard to read as he mistreated many, often in the name of his religion. We certainly learned about Magellan's voyage in school, but certainly nothing about its triumphs and travails along the way.Bergreen's book is an excellent account of the voyage, offering a fairly balanced look at Magellan's accomplishments and failings. Laurence Bergreen's "Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe" is yet another book that proves my theory that my childhood history books boiled great stories down into the most uninteresting nuggets of facts and figures. ![]()
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