Captain James Cook: A Biography

Traces the life of the British explorer, recounts how he rose from the lowest ranks of the merchant marine, and describes his voyages to North America, the North and South Pacific, the Arctic, and the Antarctic

Is James Cook to be best understood as an explorer and scholar or an agent of European imperialism? This comprehensive biography by a noted writer of popular maritime history tells Cook's story without taking much of a stand. Even as a junior naval officer, his abilities secured him one key appointment after another on exploration and survey expeditions between 1763 and 1779. Hough emphasizes the importance for military, commercial and scientific purposes of the accurate charts and maps produced by Cook. Anthropological investigations were by-products of Cook's usual primary missions. A mixture of arrogance and innocence led him to ignore signs of increasing friction between British sailors and Pacific islanders. His death by stoning at the hands of Hawaiian warriors on Feb. 14, 1779, heralded the end of the Age of Reconnaissance in the Pacific and the beginning of an age of conquest. Illustrations.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Long before space travel and long before the proliferation of media made the world a "global village," the most dashing and courageous men in the world were such explorers as Captain James Cook. Hough's easygoing, thorough treatment of the early years of Cook's training and the later years of exploration and discovery spotlights a proud, determined man whose exploring was tightly tied to scientific speculations. Cook's meanderings introduced countless new flora and fauna and acquainted Europeans with the many cultures of the Pacific, among them the Maoris and the Hawaiians, the latter of whom dealt the explorer--literally--a death blow. (A spectacular account of Captain Cook's death at the hands of the islanders is one of the high points of the book.) Hough finishes with a flourish by suggesting that a heretofore unknown health problem may have led to the incident provoking the captain's death. The legacy of Cook, last of the great adventurers of the exploration era, is clearly indicated in his transition from exploration in search of gold and riches to modern scientific exploration. Joe Collins

A prolific author of scholarly and popular works, including The Last Voyage of Captain James Cook (LJ 12/15/79), Hough has now authored a highly readable narrative of the life of the great 18th-century navigator, explorer, and cartographer who "shaped the shores" of the Pacific Ocean, including many of its islands and polar regions. This new biography does not supplant J.C. Beaglehole's definitive The Life of Captain James Cook (LJ 4/1/74). However, the author's travels in the wake of Cook's voyages and his scrutiny of the scattered archival sources give this work a fresh and lively quality. Hough sustains his opinion that Cook is a bridge between the scientific speculations of his own day and the industrial revolution that followed in the next century. Recommended for both academic and public libraries.?William F. Young, SUNY at Albany Lib.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.