The Great Age of Discovery, Volume 1

Columbus, Magellan, and the Early Explorations

By: Paul Herrmann

Narrated by: Charlton Griffin

In the space of 400 years, Western man methodically set out to explore and map the entire earth. During some of the most dangerous expeditions ever mounted, an extraordinary group of determined men forced passages through vast oceans, dark jungles, and withering deserts. Never has their like been seen since. What drove these soldiers, sailors, and civilians to leave the comforts of civilized life and face the horrors of shipwreck, starvation, cannibals, and disease?

The primary motivations were fame, fortune, and adventure...sometimes all three. But with some of these explorers there was also a sense of duty, the idea that it was their destiny to discover new lands, new trading routes, to further the prominence of their king and country, and to illuminate the dark corners of the planet to solve the geological riddles that had puzzled humanity for eons.

In Paul Herrmann's great synthesis of anthropology, archaeology, medicine, and wonderful narrative history, we discover the story behind the great expeditions. We learn how they were organized and carried out, what happened when Europeans confronted strange and often savage societies, and what happened to these explorers upon their return to Europe. We also learn what impact their discoveries had on primitive cultures and European society. But this history is also much more. The result is an unbelievable picture of mankind swept up in the dramatic passage from enforced isolation to a dynamic worldwide trading network.

Volume 1 follows the voyages of Columbus, da Gama, Magellan, Cortes, Pizarro, and others as the Western hemisphere is discovered and mapped. After Magellan's voyage, the world of trade takes a revolutionary turn and the fortunes of Europe and the Mediterranean are changed forever.

Did you enjoy Volume 1 of The Great Age of Discovery? Then be sure to listen to the conclusion in Volume 2©2004 Audio Connoisseur

Interesting but dated!

This narrative history covers Columbus, Da Gama, Magellan, Cortes, Pizarro and a few random Teutons. I found the accounts of the explorers more interesting and plausible, and less dated, than those of the conquerers, on balance.

I was very interested by the way the famous navigators were placed into a broader context that made them more understandable. For example, how the Portuguese turned down Columbus because they were so invested in their own routes around Africa, and how it was already widely agreed that the world was round, with the disagreement more about distances. I was fascinated to learn that Da Gama's first trip to India by sea was preceded by Portuguese intelligence gathering on the east African coast via Egypt, and by diplomatic missions to India via the same route. A much more systematic and well-prepared operation than I realized, the culmination of a long process of systemic convergence.

By contrast, the discussion of the conquests is tainted by racialist obsessions characteristic of an earlier age. For example, the author desperately wants to prove that Quezacoatl reflects pre-Columbian contacts by Europeans, by Christians no less, and he even wants to show that cities in Bolivia were built by white-skinned foreigners. It gets a but old.

A great discovery

I never learned anything in detail about the conquest of S. America when I was in school, and who knew we knew so much about Columbus and Magellan, even down to how much of what stores they took on their ships. What emerges from the chapters on Africa is that the interior of Africa might truly be said to have been unknown until the European explorers arrived. It seems unlikely that any one group on the African continent had any handle at all on more than a small fraction of the picture.
Herrmann's post-WW II German prejudices come through in many places - still focused on the role of the European, whether Europeans had ever been in thus and such a place before, are the natives partly descended from Euro's, and so on. Much of the thinking on these subjects in the early to mid 20th centuries seems to have been quite altered in the more than 50 years since the book appeared.
Still, a very interesting read, with lots of human interest and character development of the many explorers he covers.
And Charlton Griffon's exceptional narration is as nearly unexceptionable as I have encountered. My only complaints are variant pronunciations, and occasional apparent lack of preparation in emphasizing the wrong element of a sentence, a flaw I find in most audio readings. And it's all made up for by Mr. Griffon's flawless sense of pacing and passion.
Interesting, if dated, material; well-read; and highly recommended.

True 'Indiana Jones'

Living in an age where true discovery has expanded into the macro and micro age of science, it is refreshing, and indeed exciting to hear about an age where physical exploration with its associated dangers expanded the realm of human knowledge by leaps and bounds, shattering the age-old misconceptions of the nature of man and the enviornment in which he dwells.

This recording of The Great Age of Discovery is very much an adventure story of the highest magnitude, with a wonderful narration by Charlton Griffin.

A good read

This book is definitely interesting although some of the views on native religions and cultures are somewhat outdated the vast majority of the knowledge is still very current and informative would highly recommend to anyone interested in the topic

Exciting history but marred by prejudice.

An engaging account of the 15th & 16th century Europeans who explored the New World.
Though it is jolting to read the bias in historical writing from 60 yrs ago, as this is marred by a lot of racial arrogance.
Herrmann too often excuses the white atrocities and uses native practices as reason enough for them, seeming to forget who invaded whom.
I came away from the book thinking:
1) it is true these explorers were remarkable men, daring, brave, ambitious-- but also utterly ruthless. It's possible they had to be as each expedition was threatened by mutiny and desertion.
2) The writer was racist. An opinion that's hard to shake off as the book progresses and by (googling while I read this) his objection to interracial marriage in another book.