As the 18th century approached its midpoint, commercial and military competition between the European states became fierce. And whoever obtained accurate information about distant lands would hold an advantage. Were there continental landmasses in the Pacific? Was there a Northwest Passage to Japan and China? What lay in the interior of Africa? Was it possible to cross the Sahara? Where did the rivers Nile and Congo originate? The concluding volume of The Great Age of Discovery follows the explorations that mapped the vast Pacific ocean and the menacing interior of Africa. The names of three men figure prominently in this saga: Captain James Cook, David Livingstone, and Henry Morton Stanley. But there were many equally brave men who are not so well known and whose incredible achievements deserve recognition. Author Paul Herrmann gives them their due with grace and vigor.There have never been explorers like these, and probably never will be again. Through frightening storms at sea, vast wastelands of sand, and dark, impenetrable jungle, these men carried the light of knowledge so that all who followed after could see. Read more

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The editors of Time-Life Books have produced another exciting series: The Seafarers. The Northwest Passage is brought to you in wonderful detail through vivid photography and engaging, informative text. Read more

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Named Best Book of the Year by the Globe and Mail, History Today and The Hill TimesA gripping and eye-opening account of the building of the engineering triumph that created a nation: the Canadian Pacific RailwayThe sharp decline of the demand for fur in the late nineteenth century could have spelled economic disaster for the venerable Hudson’s Bay Company, but an idea emerged in political and business circles in Ottawa and Montreal to connect the disparate British colonies. With over 3,000 kilometres of track, much of it driven through wildly inhospitable terrain, the Canadian Pacific Railway would be the longest railway in the world and the most difficult to build. Its construction was the defining event of its era and a catalyst for powerful global forces.The times were marked by greed, hubris, blatant empire building, oppression, corruption and theft. They were good for some, hard for most, disastrous for others. The CPR enabled a new country, but it came at a terrible price. In Dominion, Stephen R. Bown widens our view of the past to include the adventures and hardships of explorers and surveyors, the resistance of Indigenous peoples, and the terrific and horrific work of many thousands of labourers. His portrayal of the powerful forces that were moulding the world during this time provides a revelatory new picture of modern Canada’s creation as an independent state. Read more

May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth is a privileged glimpse into the private correspondence of the officers and sailors who set out in May 1845 on the Erebus and Terror for Sir John Franklin’s fateful expedition to the Arctic.The letters of the crew and their correspondents begin with the journey’s inception and early planning, going on to recount the ships’ departure from the river Thames, their progress up the eastern coast of Great Britain to Stromness in Orkney, and the crew’s exploits as far as the Whalefish Islands off the western coast of Greenland, from where the ships forever departed the society that sent them forth. As the realization dawned that something was amiss, heartfelt letters to the missing were sent with search expeditions; those letters, returned unread, tell poignant stories of hope. Assembled completely and conclusively from extensive archival research, including in far-flung family and private collections, the correspondence allows the reader to peer over the shoulders of these men, to experience their excitement and anticipation, their foolhardiness, and their fears.The Franklin expedition continues to excite enthusiasts and scholars worldwide. May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth provides new insights into the personalities of those on board, the significance of the voyage as they saw it, and the dawning awareness of the possibility that they would never return to British shores or their families. Read more

Robert Rogers, commander of Rogers’ Rangers during the French and Indian War, was the war’s best-known colonial military hero and, in the ensuing peace, one of the best-known Americans of any description, rivaling Benjamin Franklin in popularity. He was revered in the colonies as an example of the self-made man based on merit, in contrast to the hide-bound, hierarchical British military establishment. Yet this American icon ultimately alienated his peers,fought as a loyalist in the Revolutionary War, ruined himself financially, and died in obscurity in London, estranged from the country of his birth. Rogers is known today for his role in developing the mystique of the modern Ranger, but what explains his meteoric rise and his long, depressing fall?            Robert Rogers, Ranger: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon by Martin Klotz is a fresh look at the life of this famous, yet highly flawed man. Rogers undeniably had great personal strengths. He was brave nearly to the point of fearlessness. He was physically robust, always the one to cover the retreat, carry the wounded, or go for help when no one else could carry on. He was an intrepid explorer who wrote with eloquence about the splendors of the American frontier. He was bold and unconventional, good at thinking outside the box. He was an outstanding scout and intelligence gatherer who provided invaluable service to a British army inexperienced in woodland warfare. At the same time Rogers had enormous weaknesses that undermined his ability to lead effectively. His boldness was never tempered by judgment, and he was prone to grandiose schemes that came to nothing or, worse, to disaster. His constant self-promotion—including embellishing and lying about his battlefield successes—contributed to his popularity but damaged his reputation with peers and superiors. He succumbed to alcoholism and gambling, was profligate, especially with money—his debts were enormous—and routinely skirted the edges of the law. Rogers never found a comfortable place in America. Instead, his aristocratic patrons in London, who knew him mostly from his own self-description, gave him his most valuable opportunities, including commanding an important military and trading center on the colonial frontier and establishing the Queen’s Rangers to fight alongside Crown forces during the Revolution. But when the British cause failed in America, Rogers became an anathema on both sides of the Atlantic. A fascinating inquiry into an eighteenth-century life, Robert Rogers, Ranger presents this American legend as he lived, crossing the line between fame and misfortune. Read more

"Intriguing [and] enjoyable." —Ian McGuire, New York Times Book ReviewIce Ghosts weaves together the epic story of the lost Franklin Expedition of 1845—whose two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, and their crew of 129 were lost to the Arctic ice—with the modern tale of the scientists, divers, and local Inuit behind the recent incredible discoveries of the wrecks. Paul Watson, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was on the icebreaker that led one of the discovery expeditions, tells a fast-paced historical adventure story and reveals how a combination of faith in Inuit knowledge and the latest science yielded a discovery for the ages. Read more

A truly continental history in both its geographic and political scope, The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, 1713-1763 investigates eighteenth-century diplomacy involving North America and links geographic ignorance about the American West to Europeans' grand geopolitical designs. Breaking from scholars' traditional focus on the Atlantic world, Paul W. Mapp demonstrates the centrality of hitherto understudied western regions to early American history and shows that a Pacific focus is crucial to understanding the causes, course, and consequences of the Seven Years' War. Read more

This fascinating social history of polar expeditions examines the cultural trends that produced these daring, even reckless journeys.From the late-17th to the early 20th century, intrepid explorers from America and Europe risked (and sometimes lost) their lives exploring the forbidding, uncharted landscapes of the Arctic and Antarctica. What drove these men to undertake these seemingly impossible journeys? In this deeply researched book, author John Dippel makes a convincing case that dozens of polar expeditions were motivated less by courageous idealism than personal ambition and national rivalries. The author traces the ways in which men of unbridled ambition responded to society's need for heroes by masking their true intentions behind patriotic sentiments or noble claims about advancing science. In so doing they frequently put their own lives and those of the men in their command at enormous risk. At the same time, they projected an attitude of cultural superiority, looking down on indigenous arctic people. Their disrespect and ignorance of native means of transportation, diet, shelter, and knowledge of the terrain often led explorers into disaster, where men perished from starvation and exposure or nearly lost their minds. In the end, the failure of so many polar expeditions exposed the limits of humanity's control of nature and helped to undermine faith in inevitable progress. Readers who have heard of the incredible exploits of such famous explorers as Robert F. Scott, Roald Amundsen, James Cook, and Robert Peary will find in this book an intriguing explanation for what impelled these men to endure unimaginable cold, near-starvation, and years of isolation at the ends of the earth. Read more

Few Canadians have seen a Hudson's Bay Company catalogue and understandably so. The Company's Department Store mail-order business was operated only from 1881 to 1913; today copies of the original catalogue are extremely rare. The Company opened Western Canada's first department store in Winnipeg in 1881, a stone's throw from walled Fort Garry. The treasures of the first store are all here in the Autumn and Winter 1910-11 catalogue. The choicest of prime furs, the best diagonal tweed, and the finest quality beaver are used in the manufacture of ladies' coats. Men's 'Renown' suits of pure worsteds in fashionable shades can be purchased for only $15.00; the finest 9 x 12 Wilton, Axminster, and Brussels rugs from European looms are priced from $24.50 to $36.50. The famous Point blankets, guns, camping equipment, and wines and spirits are prominently displayed. The catalogue is a visual delight?a welcome addition to libraries, a superb teaching aid for schools, and an exciting gift for all those interested in another era. Read more

In the summer of 2009 Cameron Dueck and the rest of the crew of the Silent Sound completed a journey made by fewer people than have climbed Mt. Everest; they sailed through the infamous Northwest Passage. These waters are normally locked in ice, but due to climate change it is now possible to sail here for a few short weeks each summer. Their voyage from Victoria to Halifax carried them through raging storms and mechanical breakdowns and took them into sea ice that threatened to crush their hull. But more importantly it brought them face to face with modern Arctic life in tiny, isolated Inuit communities where the challenge of climate change is added to the already crushing load of social and economic woes. Each person they met along the way added their story to the colourful tale of life in the Arctic; a unique place where the climate change experience is affected by the critical and ongoing debates over sovereignty, resources and cultural assimilation. Read more

Chronicles the hardships of arctic explorers in search of a northwest trade route to the orient Read more

Every schoolchild knows that "in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue"―but what they don't teach you in history class is that he wasn't the only one. In The Race to the New World, Douglas Hunter tells for the first time the fascinating tale of how Christopher Columbus was embroiled in a high-stakes race with Venetian John Cabot to find a shortcut to the East―and how they found a New World that neither was looking for. Employing fresh research and new translations of critical documents, Hunter reveals the surprisingly intertwined lives of the fabled explorer and his forgotten rival, and provides a fresh perspective on the first years of the European discovery of the New World. Read more

Jacques Cartier was an exceptional navigator who successfully crossed the Atlantic on three separate occasions using wooden vessels we wouldn’t consider sea-worthy today. In addition to the three voyages where he sailed without losing a ship, his expeditions provided Europe with in-sights into the geography, demographics, and ecology of a region that was charted at the time. Yet, he was also unscrupulous at times in his dealings with the region’s natives, which included kidnapping Stadaconans and forcing them to sail to France.Today, in Saint-Malo, Jacques Cartier is remembered and celebrated through the erecting of monuments and statues, such as the one erected in 1905, honor his legacy.The Jacques Cartier Museum in Saint-Malo offers exhibits that showcase artifacts from his voyages and significant aspects of his life. Plaques mark important locations linked to Cartier, and public events and ceremonies in Saint-Malo pay homage to Cartier's contributions to exploration.In Canadian history, Cartier is a pivotal figure. His voyages in the 16th century were instrumental in mapping the St. Lawrence River and establishing France’s claim to Canadian territories.He is credited with naming Canada, derived from the Iroquoian word “kanata,” meaning village or settlement. Although his attempts to establish a colony near modern-day Quebec City were unsuccessful, his explorations laid the groundwork for future French colonization and the development of the fur trade.Cartier’s interactions with Indigenous peoples were complex and often contentious, but they also marked the beginning of European-Indigenous relations in the region.Today, Cartier is remembered through various landmarks, schools, and institutions named in his honor.His contributions are a foundational part of the story of European exploration and settlement in North America. Read more

In 2014 media around the world buzzed with news that an archaeological team from Parks Canada had located and identified the wreck of HMS Erebus, the flagship of Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition to find the Northwest Passage. Finding Franklin outlines the larger story and the cast of detectives from every walk of life that led to the discovery, solving one of the Arctic’s greatest mysteries. In compelling and accessible prose, Russell Potter details his decades of work alongside key figures in the era of modern searches for the expedition and elucidates how shared research and ideas have led to a fuller understanding of the Franklin crew’s final months. Illustrated with numerous images and maps from the last two centuries, Finding Franklin recounts the more than fifty searches for traces of his ships and crew, and the dedicated, often obsessive, men and women who embarked on them. Potter discusses the crucial role that Inuit oral accounts, often cited but rarely understood, played in all of these searches, and continue to play to this day, and offers historical and cultural context to the contemporary debates over the significance of Franklin’s achievement. While examination of HMS Erebus will undoubtedly reveal further details of this mystery, Finding Franklin assembles the stories behind the myth and illuminates what is ultimately a remarkable decades-long discovery. Read more

After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British took it upon themselves to complete something they had been trying to do since the sixteenth century: find the fabled Northwest Passage. For the next thirty-five years the British Admiralty sent out expedition after expedition to probe the ice-bound waters of the Canadian Arctic in search of a route, and then, after 1845, to find Sir John Franklin, the Royal Navy hero who led the last of these Admiralty expeditions. Enthralling and often harrowing, The Man Who Ate His Boots captures the glory and the folly of this ultimately tragic enterprise. Read more

In the tradition of Arthur Herman’s How the Scots Invented the Modern World comes a narrative that charts the remarkable—yet often overlooked or misidentified—Scottish contribution to Arctic explorationThe search for the Northwest Passage is filled with stories of tragedy, adventure, courage, and endurance. It was one of the great maritime challenges of the era. It was not until the 1850’s that the first one-way partial transit of the passage was made. Previous attempts had all failed, and some, like the ill-fated attempted by Sir John Franklin in 1845 ended in tragedy with the loss of the entire expedition, which was comprised of two ships and 129 men. Northern Lights reveals Scotland’s previously unsung role in the remarkable history of Arctic exploration. There was the intrepid John Ross, an eccentric hell-raiser from Stranraer and a veteran of three Arctic expeditions; his nephew, James Clark Ross, the most experienced explorer of his generation and discoverer of the Magnetic North Pole; Dr. John Richardson of Dumfries, who became an accidental cannibal and deliberate executionaer of a murderer as well as an engaging natural historian; and Orcadian John Rae, the man who first discovered evidence of Sir John Franklin and his crew’s demise. Northern Lights also pays tribute and reveals other overlooked stories in this fascinating era of history: the Scotch Irish, the whalers, and especially the Inuit, whose unparalleled knowledge of the Arctic environment was often indispensible. For anyone fascinated by Scottish history or hungry for tales of Arctic adventure, Northern Lights is a vivid new addition to the rich tradition of polar narratives. Read more

This new addition to the Urban Trails series of popular, close-to-home trails is designed for people of all fitness levels, from walkers to runners to cyclists, who want to get outside for fresh air and some exercise without a long drive or the need to do any planning.Urban Trails: Vancouvercovers all of Clark County (population approximately 500,000) from the Columbia River to the trails in the Yacolt Burn State Forest, as well as the Longview–Kelso and Kalama areas in neighboring Cowlitz County. Beyond the trails in Vancouver itself, it features hikes in Battle Ground, Ridgefield, La Center, Camas, and Washougal. Highlights include Lewis and Clark Expedition sites, American Indian sites, Fort Vancouver, and the city’s historic downtown. Read more

Let’s travel back in time to celebrate the special year of 1934!Were you born in 1934? Or Was this the year you were married?120 pages With over 90+ iconic events around the world: US, UK, CA, AU, DE, FR, JP…. – Bonus Over 10 Games & Activities for your special day - it’s the perfect birthday or wedding anniversary gift.Delve into the vibrant Culture, the influential People, the momentous Events, and the groundbreaking Arts that made 1934 extraordinarily distinct and molded the global landscape as we recognize it in modern times.This thoughtful intermingling of consequential and cultural moments will reawaken your feelings about such an exceptional period that left an indelible mark on the annals of history.Beautifully presented with photos on every page.This is not only a book to read, but it is also a time-travel experience for you! What this train to the past contains:• History: The political landscape of 1934 was shaped by global tumult and shifting ideologies. Nations grappled with economic recovery amidst the aftermath of the Great Depression, witnessing the rise of authoritarian regimes in Europe and the consolidation of power by leaders like Adolf Hitler.• Movies: The year 1934 was a memorable one in the world of cinema, with a wide range of films that left a lasting impact on audiences.• Nostalgic Photographs: Explore a curated collection of photographs that capture the spirit of the era, from iconic moments to everyday life.• Getting hands-on with challenging activities like puzzles, crosswords, word searches, and a delightful colouring/coloring corner. Feel the sensation of 1934 as you solve, reminisce, and create.There are also countless:• Fashion• Oscar 1934• Music topics, what was the No. 1 on your birthday?• 1934 InventionsTo find out what happened when you grew up, in school, started working, and started a family:• Key news stories of the era• Fashion, music and entertainment changes• The latest automobiles of '34• See how the digital age has transformed our entertainment and homesAll painted on quality paper, the whole world of 1934 will appear before your eyesGreat effort was invested to provide you with the most all-encompassing yet easily absorptive, unparalleled journey back in time.+ Access the Read Sample feature on any laptop for a sneak preview.+ Before making your purchase, thoroughly examine and compare this book.+ Part of the ORIGINAL - A Year to Remember series.+ Avoid settling for inferior AI-generated imitations.+ Authored by a genuine writer. Filled with sharp HIGH-DEFINITION photos on every page.An ideal gift for mom, mum, dad, grandma, grandpa, wife, husband or friend for unique Birthday, Christmas gifts, and Any occasions.It is also an opportunity for you and your family to have a fun time together to have fun, entertain with attractive games. Bond with family feelings, and review memories together. Be sure that it will be a priceless gift that you will not be able to buy at any price.We always cherish your memories, as a thank you and gratitude to you for trusting in choosing this product. Send you a small gift:• Diary corners for noting down your own reflections and memories.• Greeting cards that allow you to send warm wishes for birthdays, holidays, or special events.• Notes pages help you save important things in the past as well as in the present.With all of the above. Surely you will not be able to earn in any product line, bringing you memories and quality. The perfect trip down memory lane. It can be enjoyed together with friends.Click the "BUY NOW" button at the top of the page to get this special book as a surprise gift for your loved ones. Read more

A Classic in the History of Exploration, a Judicious Account of the Role of the Cabots in the Discovery of the New World John Cabot, Giovanni Caboto in his native Italian, led an expedition to the New World in 1497 on behalf of King Henry VII of England. He is considered the first European to explore North America since the Viking voyages five hundred years earlier. Although Cabot’s exact landfall on his first voyage is not known—it could have been Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, or even Maine—his claim for England to this territory countered the Spanish and Portuguese explorations to the south, and changed world history. Cabot made three roundtrips between Bristol, England, and North America, and later, his son Sebastian, made two similar voyages. John and Sebastian Cabot: The Discovery of North America by historian Sir Charles Raymond Beazley was first published in 1898. Its enduring value in addition to its lucid, well-balanced and researched narrative is the author’s detailed history of prior voyages to the North American continent, including those from China and the Pacific Islands as well as those from the realms of mythology. The author also includes all extant references to the Cabots in historical documents. Read more