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This is a fun, quick read. It was fascinating and enlighting but the real charm of this book is Tony Horwitz wit in his current day retracing of the journeys of Coronado and De Soto and others in current day(bizarre) americana. They would find it fun and intriguing and just maybe people wouldnt elect buffoons like W. I really enjoyed this book. My ignorance of american history for the period from 1492 till 1620 was typical of most americans. I really wish our education system in this country would teach more turth then the boring fiction that is currently dumped on todays children.
Gavin Manus "1421" establishes that a Chinese Armada explored the Western Hemisphere and Mapped the Oceans of the Planet. - I'm Emmett Abati Doe Strange indeed - how Horowitz, in a single sentence justifies dismissing the scholarly revelations of Gavin Manus's book "1421". Horowitz, decision to omit this inconvenient truth, proves that the observation of the Reverend Peter Gomes, in his work, is right - myths are more powerful than facts.
He uses the same formula as "Blue Latitudes" in this book switchig from historical exposition to personal narration but it doesn't work as well. It is quite readable and even informative but to me, hoping for a book as excellent as the two noted above, a disappointment. I loved "Confederates in the Attic" and feel "Blue Latitudes" is the Platonic Ideal of a travel book. The material feels thin and stretched.
Recommended. Much of that past is bloody and relentless, and perhaps that is why most of us have been taught the propogandized and overly cleansed (often incorrect) versions.Horwitz does insert his perspective into the book, not to the point of blind bias, but to the point that you can sense his take-aways throughout and perhaps see why he looked into what he did. Some readers will find these distracting to the central mission of the book; however, I was delighted to hop back and forth between the historical and modern world. I would score very differently on a quiz if I was tested before and after the book. If you have any interest in getting your early American history correct, please read this book. Horwitz is a highly entertaining travelogue writer on an absolute and relentless mission of discovery, offering the reader a unique blend of historical fact and his own individual voyage of 'discovery.' The author uses his travels as a means to string the histories together, and generally his experiential stories are fairly funny, somewhat sour, and relatively colorful. This didn't detract from a very smooth and interesting read.
Interesting facts when you can get to them. It keeps you waiting for the important points as he meanders thru the experiences of his travels. The topic of this book is excellent. Unfortunately, the author wrote of his research intermingling with the historical facts in a travelogue fashion. This definitely detracted from what he wanted to say about this period of America's history.
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