The Greatest Explorers in History

The Greatest Explorers in History written by Michelle Rosenberg and published by Pen & Sword Books - £20 - Hardback - Pages 208

This is a book about one of the first recorded pilgrims who climbed Mount Sinai; it’s about Amelia Earhart, the famous American aviator whose story and disappearance continues to capture the world’s imagination. It’s the story of a doomed expedition to discover the North-West Passage, and the tale of Marco Polo, who remained at the court of the Kublai Khan for an incredible 17 years.

The Greatest Explorers in History brings to life the pioneers in aviation flying thousands of miles with the most basic of maps in open cock-pits, exposed to the elements and the unrelenting smell of petrol fumes. They travel by steamboat, on horseback, by rickshaw, motorbike, train, swim with piranhas, embark into black nothingness in new spacecraft, explore by jeep, yachts, tea boats and elephants, disguise themselves as men, take canoes and use innovative, advanced technological scuba equipment.

Going where in many cases, no man or woman had ever gone before, some women featured in The Greatest Explorers in History were often denied respect, acknowledgement or recognition and they determined to break the ‘men's club’ mentality of global exploration from which they were excluded.

Marco Polo:

“This desert is reported to be so long that it would take a year to go from end to end, and at the narrowest point, it takes a month to cross it. It consists entirely of mountains and sands and valleys. There is nothing at all to eat.”

It's unfortunate that more publicity or writing goes doesn’t go to renowned explorers because when you read some of the stories and adventures these men and women attempt is truly staggering. In a number of cases, you could say that what some of these people try to attempt is like certain death, so there has to be a little admiration that these people attempt these feats. This book is divided into separate chapters for each explorer, and what is actually a nice thing is that the women and men are split up, I personally think this helps put both on a par with each other rather than the women being overshadowed. I also liked the fact that the ‘space’ explorers and ‘South Pole’ explorers were put into separate sections too. 

It is surprising how many of these explorers are easily recognisable such as Amelia Earhart, Ernest Shackleton, Meriwether Lewis, David Livingstone, Nellie Bly, Marco Polo & Neil Armstrong to name just a few. It was also nice to see such an array of names going back a couple of thousand years right up to the 20th century. A subject that gets little converge, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it was a really good read, with some examples for further reading. A book I would recommend to others.