Justin Marozzi
A World of Wanderers
Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration
By Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Oxford University Press 596pp £25 order from our bookshop
Felipe Fernández-Armesto’s absorbing history of exploration – an ambitious history of humankind, in effect – begins with a premise many will find curious. On the very first page he posits an extraterrestrial observer characterising the history of Homo sapiens on earth. ‘The cosmic observer would surely say that our history was, above all, experience of increasing diversity,’ he suggests. That is not at all what my putative ET would deduce. He would define human history as an unbroken narrative of warfare and might reasonably conclude that we suffer from an addiction to bloodshed and conquest. Alternatively, he might consider the spread of humankind across the planet as akin to that of a particularly contagious virus. Either way, diversity wouldn’t come into it.
Fernández-Armesto’s point is important because it helps shape the central, contentious, theory of his book: our history can be divided into two phases. First, the story of divergence – of how human cultures parted and developed. Second, the much shorter story of convergence, how they got back into contact with
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Delighted to have reviewed this —
Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530–1830 by Steven Brindle via @Lit_Review
You can tell it's Christmas... because here's my round up of books for @Lit_Review, feat. @Sally_Nicholls @lcpalmerpoet @laurenstjohn Katherine Rundell @thenickbowling @HelenCooperbook @foliosociety
A sneak preview of THE BOOK FORGER in the bumper Christmas issue of @Lit_Review, featuring a bombshell of a letter that I believe @aarontpratt currently has on show @ransomcenter.