The truth is more interesting than the hero-worshiping legends.
Like that book, it creates a framework for the great age of exploration–and the characters and their motives are not what you learned in school. Like Round About the Earth(which I reviewed a few days ago), this book by Nigel Cliff is packed with information about explorers we have heard of and some we have not.
The Last Crusade: The Epic Voyages of Vasco da Gama, famous explorer from Portugal in the late 15th and early 16th century fills the bill. She wanted one that covered several periods, but built around a single theme with interesting characters and action like a novel. “Master, if you know the sea is crazy and has no brain, why do you venture upon it?” African man to a priest from Portugal who lands on the African coast, according to The Last Crusade.Ī friend recently told me that she was looking for a different kind of history book.
Destination: Portugal and Explorations to Indiaīook: The Last Crusade: The Epic Voyages of Vasco da Gama by Nigel Cliff (Previously published as Holy War)