The Captain Cook Myth

Jillian Robertson, Angus & Robertson Publishers. Condition remarks:Book: Good Jacket: N/APages: Yellowed Markings: No markingsA work of historical inquiry, The Captain Cook Myth by Jillian Robertson challenges the romanticized and often distorted narratives that have long surrounded the legendary British explorer James Cook. Robertson argues that the heroic image of Cook, celebrated in Western culture as a great discoverer and navigator, was largely constructed through selective storytelling, colonial ideology, and the deliberate erasure of Indigenous perspectives. With a sharp, critical tone, the work uncovers the political and cultural forces that shaped Cook's legacy, presenting a more complex and at times troubling portrait of the man and the era he represented. Drawing on historical records and cross-cultural analysis, Robertson illustrates how myths of exploration served to justify empire-building and the dispossession of Pacific peoples. The result is a thought-provoking reassessment that invites readers to reconsider not just one man's legacy, but the broader machinery of colonial myth-making itself.