Captain Cook: Voyager Between Worlds - Hardcover

"His perceptiveanalysis gives a new depth of understanding... highly recommended for history andanthropology collections in academic and large public libraries."- ElizabethSalt, "Library Journal, "June 1, 2007, Vol. 132 No. 10--, "Using the life ofCapt. James Cook as a framework, Gascoigne does as exhaustive comparison of 18th-centuryBritain with lands of the Pacific...Gascoigne's book is a historical treatiserather than a biography. Still, theauthor researched and documented his work, extensively. Pages of endnotes follow the text, which iswell-written, meticulous and fascinating." --"Charleston"" Post" and "Courier Net" ''thoughtful and original'- Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 34 (2007)--, "His perceptive analysis gives a new depth of understanding... highly recommended for history and anthropology collections in academic and large public libraries."- Elizabeth Salt, "Library Journal, "June 1, 2007, Vol. 132 No. 10--Sanford Lakoff "Using the life of Capt. James Cook as a framework, Gascoigne does as exhaustive comparison of 18th-century Britain with lands of the Pacific...Gascoigne's book is a historical treatise rather than a biography. Still, the author researched and documented his work, extensively. Pages of endnotes follow the text, which is well-written, meticulous and fascinating." -"Charleston"" Post" and "Courier Net" "Just when you thought that you had read all the different ways of recounting Cook's vogages of discovery, along comes John Gascoigne with a new approach ... the author is a good storyteller, and is able to link together topics that at first sight apepar quite disparate ... each of the thematic chapters is an unpredictable pot-pourri that makes for an interesting read." Cliff Thornton, Cook's Log--Sanford Lakoff "This is not so much a book about Cook as it is about his negotiation of the southern Pacific way of thinking and way of life...Illustrations and notes add a fascinating, well-written book. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries." G. J. Martin, CHOICE, April 2008, Vol. 45, No. 8 --Sanford Lakoff "Gascoigne provides vivid examples of how the process of cultural conflict and accommodation worked in the Pacific in the mid-to late eighteenth century." Brian Refford, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 47, July 2008--Sanford Lakoff "John Gascoigne paints a detailed and clear picture of the time and place {of Cook's}, and by extension provedes a keyhole onto Cook. It is the Interaction between Cook's worlds, 'Old' and 'New' that is the central theme in this authoritative study." - The Age, Melbourne--Sanford Lakoff 'Yet ... academically rigorous .. also very readable. I was constantly arrested by aspects of the story which are fresh and insightful.[John Gascoigne] has given us history aqs it should be written' - Canberra Times--Sanford Lakoff ''thoughtful and original' - Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 34 (2007)--Sanford Lakoff 'meticulously mapped with an attention to detail that Cook would have admired.' - Australian, December 2007--Sanford Lakoff 'This is an impressive book. ... it is cutting- edge scholarship. Gascoigne combines superb research, brilliant analysis and more than a flash of unusual insight' - History: Review of New Books, 34.4 (Summer 2007--Sanford Lakoff 'one of the great pleasures of this book is that it is elegantly written and in a style which should satisfy the general reader ... as well as Cook scholars. He [Gascoigne] confidently masters the broad literature of the voyages, the 18th-century British background and the available literature on the Pacific' - The Journal of Pacific History, vol 43, no 2, September 2008--Sanford Lakoff '[Gascoigne] is a fine historical scholar and has writtne a fascinating book. that ''' is enjoyable and rewarding. Cook enthusiasts and scholars will revel in the mass of new information ... and the insights into British society at the time of these great voyages ... I was often surprised and impressed, and I learned a great deal.' - International History Review, June 2008, vol 30--Sanford Lakoff 'An absorbing and provocative book.' - The Press, January 2008--Sanford Lakoff

Captain James Cook was a supreme navigator and explorer, but in many ways was also a representative of English attitudes in the eighteenth century. In his voyages, he came across peoples with hugely different systems of thought, belief and culture. Born in North Yorkshire in 1728, he entered the world of the peoples of the South Pacific. The gulf between the two cultures was not nearly as vast as it was a century later, when ships made of metal and powered by steam were able to expand and enforce European Empires. In their different ways, both the British and the peoples of the Pacific had to battle the seas and its moods with timber vessels powered by sail and human muscle. John Gascoigne focuses on what happened when the two systems met, and how each side interpreted the other in terms of their own beliefs and experiences.