December 2012 - Tantor Media

New Releases—nonfictionPublishers Weekly H ReviewBooklist H ReviewRead by Joyce BeanCategory: HistoryRunning Time: 20 hrs - UnabridgedHardcover: 11/13/2012 (Simon & Schuster)Territory: US and CanadaOn Sale Date: 12/17/2012Trade 9781452611075 16 Audio CDs $54.99Library 9781452641072 16 Audio CDs $119.99MP3 9781452661070 2 MP3-CDs $39.99Joyce E. Chaplin is the James DuncanPhillips Professor of History at HarvardUniversity. She is the author of booksincluding Subject Matter, BenjaminFranklin’s Political Arithmetic, An AnxiousPursuit, and The First Scientific American,which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prizeand winner of the Annibel Jenkins Prize of AmericanSociety for Eighteenth-Century Studies.Joyce Bean is an accomplished audiobook narrator anddirector. In addition to being an AudioFile EarphonesAward winner, she has been nominated multiple timesfor a prestigious Audie Award, including for Good-byeand Amen by Beth Gutcheon.Joyce E. ChaplinRound About the EarthCircumnavigation from Magellan to OrbitFrom the author of The First Scientific American comesa witty, erudite, and colorful account of the outrageousambitions that have inspired men and women to circle theentire planet.For almost five hundred years, human beings have beenfinding ways to circle the Earth—by sail, steam, or liquidfuel; by cycling, driving, flying, going into orbit, even byusing their own bodily power. The story begins with thefirst centuries of circumnavigation, when few survived theattempt: in 1519, Ferdinand Magellan left Spain with fiveships and two hundred and seventy men, but only oneship and thirty-five men returned, not including Magellan,who died in the Philippines. Starting with these dangerousvoyages, Joyce Chaplin takes us on a trip of our own as wetravel with Francis Drake, William Dampier, Louis-Antoinede Bougainville, and James Cook.Eventually sea travel grew much safer and passengers cameon board. The most famous was Charles Darwin, but someintrepid women became circumnavigators too—a LadyBrassey, for example. Circumnavigation became a fad, ascaptured in Jules Verne’s classic novel, Around the World inEighty Days.Once continental railroads were built, circumnavigatorscould traverse sea and land. Newspapers sponsored racingcontests, and people sought ways to distinguish themselves.Steamships turned round-the-world travel into a luxuriousexperience, as with the tours of Thomas Cook & Son.Famous authors wrote up their adventures, including MarkTwain and Jack London and Elizabeth Jane Cochrane(better known as Nellie Bly). Finally humans took tothe skies to circle the globe in airplanes. Not much later,Sputnik, Gagarin, and Glenn pioneered a new kind ofcircumnavigation—in orbit. Through it all, the desire to takeon the planet has tested the courage and capacity of the boldmen and women who took up the challenge. Their exploitsshow us why we think of the Earth as home.Marketing• Author of The First Scientific American a finalist for theLos Angeles Times Book Prize• National radio, print, and online publicityPraise for round about the earth“Hardship, frolic, barnstorming, and spiritual enigma shapethis scintillating history of round-the-world travel.” —Publishers Weekly H Review“Weaving myriad connections among disparate voyagers,Chaplin combines acute insights with amazing adventuresin a vastly entertaining narrative.” —Booklist H ReviewivFor more titles, please visit us online.