The Great Explorers

The European Discovery of America

By: Samuel Eliot Morison

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 25 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

The great voyages of discovery to the New World are here brought to life by one of the 20th century's most eminent historians, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Samuel Morison.

A master seaman himself, Morison personally retraced the voyages of the early explorers, charting his travels in maps and photographs and comparing these to the maps and travelogues of the early sailors. The resulting two-volume The European Discovery of America was widely acclaimed both for its author's incomparable knowledge of history, cartography, and sea navigation and for the fresh immediacy of its writing.

The Great Explorers abridges this great work, following the voyages of Columbus, Magellan, Drake, and many more. Here is the fascinating story of these explorers' ventures into uncharted waters, their encounters with natives, and their joy - and surprise - at discovering new land.

©1978 Oxford University Press (P)1995 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"What a story! And how worthily the writer tells it!.... To read this book is to be a privileged passenger on the bridge beside a master mariner who... imparts the wisdoms of the deep in tones of a salty tang - brisk, skeptical, yet always measured." ( The New York Times Book Review)"One of the most readable and gripping histories in decades." ( Boston Globe)"In all ways admirable, written with wit and easy scholarship.... [Morison] at his entertaining best." ( The New Yorker)

Great content,horrible recording

the audio kept skipping. It was very frustrating. I kept checking if I had it on fast forward.

Skips at the recording

Great work. Amazing story. Some parts are skipped at the recording and don’t seem to be a device issue.

Decent book, ruined by skips...

The first part had no problems, Second part the compression file used had multiple skipped words or in some cases paragraphs. Re downloaded thinking it would clear it, but alas it did nothing.

Audio Issues

Amazing story, but the audio starts to skip the second half of the book. Frustrating at first but it is manageable.

Good Book, but don't download until audible fixes the skipping

This book has some serious skipping issues. After talking with customer service and re-downloading it 3 extra times as an failed attempt to mend the issue, the second half of the book still skipped very often, making it hard to follow. I would buy this until audible confirms they have fixed the issue.

Now for a review of the book. It was good and the composition of knowledge about this topic was impressive. The narrator has a pretty strong accent, which sometimes made it harder to follow as well. There wasn't great character buildup until he got into Columbus, Magellan and Drake, making it obvious that the author probably knows more and prefers those explorers. Still a good book, though at times it feels like your being read a text book by Scar from the Lion King.
Definitely worth a listen once they fix the skipping.

'So Far' No Problems

I'm purposely doing this review in stages while listening because of so many people mentioning skipping problems. I'm 5 hours in and no skipping problem so far. Great book, good reading, no problems 'yet'.
14 hours 30 minutes no skipping problem yet.

First skip occurs 16 hours 12 minutes in.
The skipping isn't constant, several portions are abundant with skips but others can go almost an hour or more without skipping. I would still get this audiobook again knowing the extent of the skipping. It is a problem but most skips you can glean what they were saying in between.

Marvelous sea knowledge

And I thought I knew all about these brave astronauts of the blue water. This book is for those that know the sea, or thought they did, as this book takes you to the unknown, and the author surely did some great research to pen a book such as this.

Morison is the best

Samuel Eliot Morison is one of the best historians ever. Who would take the time to fly or sail the routes the explorers used in the Americas? He did, and it adds greatly to the story telling. He doesn't go in chronological order, but north to south order, which is interesting. We start in the arctic and end in the antarctic. Enjoyable narration only adds to the well written story.

Morison also tells both sides of the story. He spends much time telling us about the slavery, brutality, and sexual misconduct of various explorers, not simply pretending they were heroes.

Only one issue, and that its a little old, so the recent discoveries of Norse artifacts and possibly the Santa Maria aren't here.

Overall, a great listen!

Most Outstanding History of the Age of Discovery

If you could sum up The Great Explorers in three words, what would they be?

This is the finest history of the discoverers in one volume I have ever seen! I have been studying, living in and teaching about Latin America for 3 decades, and to my misfortune, i am only now getting around to this master piece of historical description (and some analysis where necessary to deduce facts as left out of the written record, but always very carefully and with great effort to be true to the actual history and culture of the age). I listened to this book, and I wish i had bought the book so that i could see the pictures and used it as a reference book in the future. I will recommend its purchase for the local library.

If you are at all interested in the truth about these corageous, smart, tough, driven men and their age, read this book!

What does Frederick Davidson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

At first i was a little distracted by his accent, but that quickly passed and i grew to anxiously look forward to hearing him tell me more and more of the story. He was just right.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

My reaction was "there has never been braver, tougher, smarter, nor more religious men who changed the world ever! Also, i was reminded that virtually all of the great explorers did not live to enjoy the riches of their conquests, except Cortez who is not a subject of this book.

Any additional comments?

Forget everything you think you know about the age of discovery and their great captains, and read this book, it will give you a very interesting education!

Great book, poor quality conversion from tape

Audible, I don't see a way to report that this book needs to be re-converted from the tapes it is copied from. Around hour 16 there are many parts that speed up and skip. It is very annoying. I love the information, but it is being ruined.