Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan

Straits: Beyond the Myth of MagellanCondition: BRAND NEW ISBN: 9781526632074 Format: Trade paperback (UK) Year: 2022 Publisher: Bloomsbury Description: SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUFF COOPER PRIZE 2022 A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2022 _______________ 'Rigorous, deft and entertaining a sparkling read' The Spectator 'The ride is thrilling a work of serious scholarship' Sunday Telegraph _______________ For centuries, Ferdinand Magellan has been celebrated as a hero a noble adventurer

Condition: BRAND NEW
ISBN: 9781526632074
Format: Trade paperback (UK)
Year: 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury


Description:
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUFF COOPER PRIZE 2022

A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2022

_______________

'Rigorous, deft and entertaining ... a sparkling read' - The Spectator

'The ride is thrilling ... a work of serious scholarship' - Sunday Telegraph

_______________



For centuries, Ferdinand Magellan has been celebrated as a hero- a noble adventurer who circumnavigated the globe in an extraordinary feat of human bravery; a paragon of daring and chivalry.



Now historian Felipe Fern indez-Armesto draws on extensive and meticulous research to conduct a dazzling investigation into Magellan's life, his character and his ill-fated voyage. He reveals that Magellan did not attempt much less accomplish a journey around the globe, and that in his own lifetime, the explorer was abhorred as a traitor, reviled as a tyrant and dismissed as a failure.

Fern indez-Armesto probes the passions and tensions that drove Magellan to adventure and drew him to disaster- the pride that became arrogance, audacity that became recklessness, determination that became ruthlessness, romanticism that became irresponsibility, and superficial piety that became, in adversity, irrational exaltation. And as the real Magellan emerges, so too do his true ambitions, focused less on circumnavigating the world or cornering the global spice market than on exploiting Filipino gold.

Offering up a stranger, darker and even more compelling narrative than the fictional version that has been glorified for half a millennium, Straits untangles the myths tha