Round About the Earth Circumnavigation from Magellan to Orbit

by Chaplin, Joyce E.

• ISBN13: 9781416596202
• ISBN10: 1416596208
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-11-19
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

Highly acclaimed, this first full history of around-the-world travel by Joyce E. Chaplin brilliantly tells the story of circumnavigation. A witty, erudite, and colorful account of the outrageous ambitions that have inspired men and women to circle the entire planet.

In this first full history of around-the-world travel, Joyce E. Chaplin brilliantly tells the story of circumnavigation. For almost five hundred years, human beings have been finding ways to circle the Earth—by sail, steam, or liquid fuel; by cycling, driving, flying, or going into orbit; even by using their own bodily power. Round About the Earth is a witty, erudite, and colorful account of the outrageous ambitions that have inspired men and women to encircle the planet.

Author Biography

Joyce E. Chaplin is the James Duncan Phillips Professor of History at Harvard University. She is the author of four previous books of nonfiction, including The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius (2006), a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Science and Technology Category), and winner of the Annibel Jenkins Prize of American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.