Editorial Reviews 编辑推荐
From Publishers Weekly
After chronicling the sinking of the whaleship Essex in In the Heart of the Sea, Philbrick attempts to rescue from obscurity the U.S. Exploring Expedition"s 1838-1842 circumnavigation of the world and its cartographic and scientific accomplishments. With a strong narrative pull but an anticlimactic story arc, he chronicles the six-vessel squadron"s Pacific escapades. Instead of a grisly page-turner, however, Philbrick follows his bestselling tragedy with a drawn-out success story. More than a tale of the Ex. Ex"s journey, the book also profiles the expedition"s egomaniacal commander, Lt. Charles Wilkes; the psychological warfare he waged against his officers; and the near-miraculous survival of the squadron despite Wilkes"s perverse leadership and lack of nautical experience. Wilkes was, however, an accomplished surveyor, and the Ex. Ex. mapped hundreds of Pacific islands, 800 miles of the Oregon coast, 100 miles of the Columbia River and 1,500 miles of Antarctic coast. The expedition"s scientists made groundbreaking contributions in ethnography, biology and geology (their collections formed the basis of the Smithsonian Institution). Particularly noteworthy among Philbrick"s gripping passages are his descriptions of brash navigation in the Antarctic-but too much of the book bogs down in Wilkes"s petty politicking, as he degraded talented men and promoted incompetent ones so as not to be outshone. After four years at sea, he had alienated nearly every officer and returned home to a court-martial. "Instead of a thrilling tale of discovery and incredible achievement, [America] heard more about the flawed personality of the Expedition"s commander than anyone wanted to know," Philbrick writes of Wilkes"s 1842 trial, in which he was acquitted. Unfortunately, this spoils the retelling, too. Maps not seen by PW.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Philbrick, director of the Egan Institute of Maritime Studies, is the author of the best-selling In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (2000), which won the National Book Award. His new book is concerned with "America"s forgotten frontier, the Pacific Ocean." Specifically, he follows the dramatic story of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, which set out in 1838 in six sailing vessels, from Norfolk, Virginia, on a research voyage that would last four significant years. Their mission was "to scour the Southern Hemisphere of the earth for new lands," and by the expedition"s end, it "had made discoveries that would redraw the map of the world" and put the U.S. on the map as a world leader in scientific explorations. Philbrick"s exciting account is also a character study of the expedition"s leader, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, a "tormented, problematic figure." The story of this expedition is by definition a big one, in terms of both its objectives and accomplishments, and it is rendered here in all its largeness. Couched in the author"s fluid prose style, it cannot fail to absorb readers in all of its detail. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
From School Library Journal
Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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