A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World

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Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Delightful historical narrative May 1, 2008
128 out of 141 found this review helpful

A delightful historical narrative! And quite refreshing in this age of disinformation.

While our public schools continue their relentless rewriting of history to fit the agenda of special interest groups (such as the criminal protection lobby's removal of firearms from image of Washington crossing the Delaware), it's good to come across a book based on open-minded research. Turning the conventional pattern completely backwards, Horwitz seeks information and then forms conclusions. That approach made this book a "keeper." In fact, Horwitz deftly defrocks a long list of myths, half-truths, and utter fabrications that are almost canonical today.

He defies another convention by staying on topic. If you've been offended by books the author uses to segue into political side issues, you'll be pleased at Horwitz's not doing that.

Tony Horwitz follows the centuries-long European discovery of the new world. This discovery didn't, as popular myth holds, start at Plymouth Rock. Nor, as we are told during Thanksgiving each year, did European settlement begin with the Pilgrims. In fact, those folks didn't call themselves Pilgrims--that's a label fabricated for them in much later times.

The discovery, exploration, and settlement occurred in fits and starts. It was more stumbling and bumbling than it was heroic conquest. And it was more often brutal than it was noble.

While reading this, I frequently laughed aloud. Horwitz has a knack for keeping things lively with quips, barbs, and acerbic wit. His own adventures while visiting the many places discussed in the book sometimes produced situations that were farcical enough for a few chuckles. At other times, the people he ran across were, themselves, hilarious. As entertaining as it is, the real value of this book its actual information. Horwitz doggedly pursued answers to questions, and while that pursuit provided ample basis for comedy, it also provided answers that are worth knowing.

In some cases, that research didn't provide an answer but merely proved the official propaganda wrong. There are some things we simply do not and cannot know. When a work purports to be nonfiction and yet has answers to everything, you can be fairly confident that work isn't reliable. Horwitz voyage produced some frustrations for him and left unanswered many questions that would have been nice to have answered. The fact he doesn't just plug in an answer he likes makes me fairly confident this work is reliable.

This book is about 400 pages long and contains 15 maps.

The Prologue explains why Horwitz embarked on this quest. Despite his extensive background in American history, there were large gaps. And he got to thinking about this. He shares some of those thoughts in the Prologue.

This book is divided into three Parts:

1. Discovery.
2. Conquest.
3. Settlement.

Part One consists of four chapters, one each for Vinland (mostly Lief and related Eirickssons), 1492 (Columbus, et al), Santo Domingo (Columbus again), and Hispaniola (lots of laughs and oddball characters).

Part Two devotes five chapters to the conquest. Each chapter covers a separate geographic area: Gulf Coast (an assortment of Spanish explorers, dandies, and conquistadors), Southwest (to the seven cities of stone), the plains (the sea of grass that seemed to swallow up many explorers and potential settlers), the South (De Soto does Dixie), and the Mississippi. On that last one, I have always wondered how this river got such an ungainly name. Horwitz reveals the answer.

Part Three contains four chapters, each of which provides insight into the settlements in St. Augustine (and other Florida places), Roanoke (and other Virginia places), Jamestown, and Plymouth, respectively. The chapter on Plymouth rips apart several myths, including the many that surround the Thanksgiving holiday.

The source notes and bibliography are extensive, which would be expected of a book that is this well-researched. What those reference don't reflect is the sheer footwork Hortwitz did. And I don't mean figuratively. He actually walked where these explorers, conquerors, and settlers walked. He visited sites, spoke with other researchers, and interviewed people who had starkly different views of what occurred.

All of this research contributed to a credible work that is also quite funny in places.

4 out of 5 stars

Travels in space and time May 4, 2008
30 out of 31 found this review helpful

Some of my favorite books are those in which the authors recreate historical voyages. Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki and Ra journeys, Colin Tubrin's pilgrimage along the Silk Road, Dayton Duncan's re-tracing the Lewis & Clark path: I love reading that stuff. And now Tony Horwitz has contributed to the genre with his A Voyage Long and Strange, a book in which he "roams the annals of early America" (p. 7). Readers who remember his Confederates in the Attic can well imagine the insight with which Horwitz explores the history of the New World's discovery and the wry sense of humor he brings to his personal rediscovery of ancient routes.

Horwitz set out to explore all the points in the New World "discovered" and described by early explorers. Focusing on the three categories (that frequently, in reality, overlapped) of discovery, conquest, and settlement, Horwitz narrates the history of, for example, Coronado's search for the Cities of Gold (pp. 134-164) or the settlement of Roanoke's "lost colony" (pp. 293-325), and interweaves in the narration accounts of his own travels over Coronado's route and his exploration of the Carolina peninsula where the lost colony once flourished. The mixture makes for exciting reading, lending a contemporary vitality to the historical descriptions.

I was especially intrigued by Horwitz's account of the Spanish exploration of the New World (chapters 5-9). It's as good a short account of the conquest of the southeastern coastal regions, the southwestern deserts, and the plains west of the Mississippi, as any I know. Chapter 9, which deals with de Soto's rather aimless trek north of what today is Louisiana into Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas--which Horwitz describes as "wandering blind, deaf, and mute in the middle of the continent" (p. 255)--is particularly interesting.* It really does underscore just how much of a leap into the unknown the early visitors to the New World were making.

All in all, an interesting read with a good bibliography and several helpful maps. Highly recommended.
________
* While trying to recreate de Soto's confused ramblings, Horowitz makes his way to Arkansas City, where he's been told he'll find de Soto's coffin. But Horwitz discovers he's been on a wild goose chase. As a city elder tells him, "Young man, I do believe you've been led on. Just like those Spanish, always chasing their gold" (p. 259). In more ways than one, then, Horwitz walked in the early explorers' shoes.

5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating and vivid May 11, 2008
20 out of 22 found this review helpful

When a history book describes Plymouth Rock as looking like a "fossilized potato" and Florida's capitol building as "The Big D...," you know you're in for something unusual. Having gone to college in Tallahassee, I can attest to the reasons for the capitol's nickname -- its "towering shaft flanked by gonadlike domes," as author Tony Horwitz puts it. He writes with equal wit throughout "A Voyage Long and Strange," a smart, funny book that skewers traditional views of our nation's past. I couldn't put it down.

The book explores the lusty, violent period in American history between Columbus and Jamestown. Horwitz embarks on a journey of his own, exploring the modern-day places where our country began. Along the way he uncovers some strange truths -- Columbus never saw or set foot on any land that became U.S. soil; Pocahontas was only 10 years old when she met John Smith and they were never romantic; Ponce de Leon was looking not for the Fountain of Youth but rather gold, just like so many others. The overall picture is cruel, hilarious, messy, unfair and always fascinating.

Over a dozen maps and many historical black and white illustrations are scattered through the book.

Here's the chapter list:

Part 1: Discovery
1. Vinland: First contact
2. 1492: The hidden half of the globe
3. Santo Domingo: The Columbus jinx
4. Dominican Republic: You think there are still Indians?

Part II: Conquest
5. The Gulf Coast: Naked in the New World
6. The Southwest: To the Seven Cities of Stone
7. The Plains: Sea of grass
8. The South: De Soto does Dixie
9. The Mississippi: Conquistador's last stand

Part III: Settlement
10. Florida: Fountain of youth, river of blood
11. Roanoke: Lost in the lost colony
12. Jamestown: The captain and the naturals
13. Plymouth: A tale of two rocks

5 out of 5 stars

fascinating reverent journey May 3, 2008
15 out of 20 found this review helpful

Upon a visit to Massachusetts, Tony Horowitz is awed when he sees Plymouth Rock; not out of it being grand sort of an American Gibraltar, but to realize it is not much more than a pebble. As one child points out, the Pilgrims must have had small feet to land on that rock. Tony reflects on what he knows about American history only to draw major blanks for over a century and half; from Columbus until Jamestown. What frightens Tony is that he graduated with a history degree. Thus he vows to track the story of the European explorers who traveled American even before Columbus. Starting with the Vikings and following with the French and Spanish, Tony tracks those who came before Jamestown.

With a nod to Mr. Wuhl's HBO special Assume The Position, Tony Horowitz goes on a reverent journey tracing the paths traveled by European explorers between 1492 and 1607. On his trek, Mr. Horowitz meets many people with a differing interpretation of events like the Spanish (St. Augustine was founded forty-two years earlier than the Plymouth Rock landing) came before the Pilgrims so America should celebrate Thanksgiving with Chili. This is a fun travelogue as Mr. Horowitz' enthusiasm and energy add to the enjoyment; quoting Mr. Wuhl: "I shit you not".

Harriet Klausner

1 out of 5 stars

Not in my library June 26, 2008
10 out of 28 found this review helpful

The serious weakness in the book is first suggested in the grossly inaccurate colored map on the inside cover of the book. The map and text show Cabeza de Vaca's route as beginning in Texas (rather than Florida)and running through central Texas (rather than norther Mexico). Cabeza de Vaca's route has been extensively covered by well documented historical and archeological studies over the past thirty years with no one faintly suggesting the route identified by the author's map and narrative. The same comment is made regarding the map and narrative regarding the route of De Soto who spent more time west of the Mississippi than he spent east of the river, including the extensive one-year journey to the southwest to try to march overland to Mexico.I understand the interest in making the story and voyage long and strange, but this could have been accomplished within the context of well established academic studies that abound.

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