Scientific Exploration And Expeditions
by Scientific Exploration /
2017 / English / PDF
11.2 MB Download
This two-volume set, aimed at middle-school students, provides information on explorers and scientists, as well as their expeditions and investigations, in eighty articles. Beginning with the "Age of Discovery" (that is, approximately 1420, the time of Prince Henry the Navigator), this set summarizes the most important discoveries in fields from polar exploration and paleontology to African explorers, archeology, and anthropology, covering events up to mid-2009. Both important expeditions and essential discoveries by scientists such as Charles Darwin appear, and explorations on all seven continents are detailed. Other articles furnish surveys of related fields, such as maps and mapmaking, as well as space exploration.
Additional overviews summarize the area explorations from the Amazon River to the Gobi Desert, while the major exploratory societies such as the National Geographic Society and the International Polar Year also have entries. Many lesser known people receive good coverage, such as Gertrude Bell (Middle East archeologist), Joseph Banks (botanist with Captain Cook), the Hanbury-Tenisons (ethnographers in Brazil and Indonesia), and Georg Schweinfurth (African explorer).
Articles start with a very short timeline to help place material into context. Black and white illustrations occur sporadically many are photographs of paintings or "in the field" photos, but most are not well reproduced. Nearly sixty sidebars give capsule histories of related objects such as Cousteaus ship Calypso, Heyerdahls Kon-Tiki, or insight into people or events, for example the Cook-Perry competition to reach the North Pole, the supposed "curse" of King Tut, and the Silk Road into China. Short lists of additional readings, mostly biographies or explorers journals about specific events as well as a few websites, are provided at the end of each article.
The full contents are located in the front of volume 1, along with the list of available sidebar articles and a topic finder with all material grouped under major headings, while the index is found at the end of volume 2. The introduction contains a long discourse on Columbus, mostly discussing how his discoveries opened up a new age. The author includes two extensive quotes from Columbuss journal here, but Columbus himself does not have an article of his own rather he is discussed as part of the article on the "Age of Discovery." Data on many prominent people (for example, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark) appear only in larger articles on their particular exploits. But the set should be applauded for its extended coverage, both on modern space exploits and on enhanced numbers of lesser known people in these fields.
Suitable for middle school or public libraries who need updated information in this area.
