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Indlæser... Brutal Journey: The Epic Story of the First Crossing of North America (udgave 2006)af Paul Schneider (Forfatter)
Work InformationBrutal Journey: Cabeza de Vaca and the Epic First Crossing of North America af Paul Schneider
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Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. Amazing story of 400 Spanish explorers who walked into the bush of southern Florida in the 1520s and disappeared - eight years later four survivors showed up on the west coast of central Mexico, dressed as natives and carrying nothing but a few hundred indians worshiping them as powerful shamans. In the intervening 8 years it was one incredible adventure after the next, mostly dire tales of starvation, violence and exotic peoples. They were the first to enter North America and cross it. An otherwise little known story today, it was a classic best-seller in the 16th century, retold here with the latest scholarly findings. There are few comparable stories in the history of exploration, North America was an entirely unknown continent. ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
This book tells the story of an army of would-be conquerors who came to the New World on the heels of Cortés. Bound for glory, they landed in Florida in 1528. But only four of the four hundred would survive: eight years and a 5,000-mile journey later, three Spaniards and a black Moroccan wandered out of the wilderness to the north of the Rio Grande and into Mexico. The survivors brought nothing back other than their story, but what a tale it was. They had become killers and cannibals, torturers and torture victims, slavers and enslaved, faith healers, arms dealers, canoe thieves, and spider eaters--whatever it took to survive long enough to reach an outpost of the Spanish empire. Now, by combining the accounts of the explorers with findings of archaeologists and academic historians, Schneider offers an authentic narrative to replace a legend of North American exploration.--From publisher description. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)973.1History and Geography North America United States Early history to 1607LC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
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I've had a recent surge of interest in colonial Meso-America and this book fulfilled my wishes: specific enough not to feel like a survey history of the entire continent, approachable enough not to feel dry or difficult. In all, it was relaxing to read (despite the intensity of some of the subject matter).
In the end, though, the book's main flaw is that its structure follows that of Cabeza de Vaca's: descriptive and full-flowered in the first geographical half of the journey, then frenetic and blurry for the last fifty pages or so, where much of the action actually occurs: the many-month trek northwest across Mexico and Texas, and the reunion with Spanish conquistadors.
An aside: A couple of times in the book, Schneider refers to situations as "grizzly." I think he means "grisly." What do you think? ( )