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Product Description:
The bestselling author of Blue Latitudes takes us on a thrilling and eye-opening voyage to pre-Mayflower America On a chance visit to Plymouth Rock, Tony Horwitz realizes he’s mislaid more than a century of American history, from Columbus’s sail in 1492 to Jamestown’s founding in 16-oh-something. Did nothing happen in between? Determined to find out, he embarks on a journey of rediscovery, following in the footsteps of the many Europeans who preceded the Pilgrims to America. An irresistible blend of history, myth, and misadventure, A Voyage Long and Strange captures the wonder and drama of first contact. Vikings, conquistadors, French voyageurs—these and many others roamed an unknown continent in quest of grapes, gold, converts, even a cure for syphilis. Though most failed, their remarkable exploits left an enduring mark on the land and people encountered by late-arriving English settlers. Tracing this legacy with his own epic trek—from Florida’s Fountain of Youth to Plymouth’s sacred Rock, from desert pueblos to subarctic sweat lodges—Tony Horwitz explores the revealing gap between what we enshrine and what we forget. Displaying his trademark talent for humor, narrative, and historical insight, A Voyage Long and Strange allows us to rediscover the New World for ourselves.
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Average Rating : 
Rating :  - American Discovery and Self-Identity Fueled by Myth
A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE is Tony Horwitz's latest in his series of books that combine the history of a place with the author's often droll and insightful observations upon visiting those places today. (CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC is perhaps the best of these.)
This book takes up the series of voyages to North America leading to the arrival of the Mayflower in 1620. The history of these expeditions, from Leif Erikson's probable arrival at the northern tip of Newfoundland in the early 11th century to John Smith's voyages from the mid-Atlantic up through New England (which he named) in the early 17th, is relatively little known by most Americans.
A substantial part of this story concerns the Spanish expeditions of discovery, from the epic story of Christopher Columbus to the far less known tales of conquistadors like Francisco Vazquez de Coronado and Hernando de Soto who trekked deep into what is now the area of the southwestern and southeastern United States respectively. (De Soto traveled as far as the Mississippi.)
Horwitz gives credit to these explorers for overcoming great odds in making these journeys--for instance, as the author points out, the heavy armor worn by the Spanish, while defending themselves against Indian arrows, must have made mobility difficult, though obviously not impossible--while at the same time driving home the point that the native peoples they encountered by and large were devastated by the contact.
A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE is not quite as swift a ride as Horwitz's earlier outings. There are times when the history overwhelms a bit, and Horwitz's travel commentary drags. In the author's defense, genocide doesn't lend itself to amusing quips. Still, this book is worth the effort. Horwitz makes you see America's period of discovery in a way you probably haven't seen it before, with the legends stripped away.
The ultimate point of A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE is that it's the myths that capture Americans' imagination: we love the stories of the affair between John Smith and Pocahontas and of the First Thanksgiving even if they didn't really happen, or happen the way we think. In this way, we are not very different from the European explorers of America, who were motivated by fables of gold and wealth that did not exist--yet before their eyes lay the riches of America's natural resources.
(I recommend reading this book in hard copy over the unabridged audio version by John H. Mayer, whose voice, a cross between Rod Serling and Robert Forster, isn't well suited to this material. Tony Horwitz himself provides the audio for the abridged version; I recommend that if you need this book in audiobook format.)
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