Magellan: Over the Edge of the World

Gr 7–10—The opening lines of the prologue set the grim tone for this harrowing story of ambition and adventure in the age of explorers. Bergreen begins by tracing the complex bureaucratic and diplomatic machinations, with first the Portuguese and then the Spanish king, necessary for Ferdinand Magellan to obtain backing for an armada of five ships and more than 250 sailors. Through his balance of brute force and sophisticated personal diplomacy, Magellan drove his crew through multiple insubordinations and attempts at mutiny, the ravages of scurvy, a shipwreck on the Argentine coast, and troubled and sometimes violent interactions with indigenous peoples to discover the passage through the straits that bear his name, a sea route to support the lucrative spice trade, and the Pacific trade winds. The narrative is broken up with useful digressions on related topics. One chapter details the incredible difficulty of life at sea; another focuses on the early history of Chinese and Arab trade with the islands now known as the Philippines. Visual materials include reproductions of contemporaneous maps, paintings, and drawings; relevant photographs, such as one depicting a modern replica of Magellan's ship Victoria; and illustrations from a journal kept by Magellan's assistant. The volume concludes with copious chapter-by-chapter source notes and an extensive bibliography. Though it occasionally strays into florid language ("The voyage would sustain them all, or it would destroy them all") and Magellan's often problematic actions could be better contextualized, this is a richly researched and highly readable explication of a perennially favorite subject.