Book Review: Hampton Sides revisits Captain James Cook, a divisive figure in the South Pacific
Release time：2024-05-21 08:46:19 Source：International Inquest news portal
Captain James Cook’s voyages in the South Pacific in the late 1700s exemplify the law of unintended consequences. He set out to find a westward ocean passage from Europe to Asia but instead, with the maps he created and his reports, Cook revealed the Pacific islands and their people to the world.
In recent decades, Cook has been vilified by some scholars and cultural revisionists for bringing European diseases, guns and colonization. But Hampton Sides’ new book, “The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook,” details that Polynesian island life and cultures were not always idyllic.
Priests sometimes made human sacrifices. Warriors mutilated enemy corpses. People defeated in battle sometimes were enslaved. King Kamehameha, a revered figure in Hawaii, unified the Hawaiian Islands in 1810 at a cost of thousands of warriors’ lives.
- Previous：Uber and Lyft say they'll stay in Minnesota after Legislature passes driver pay compromise
- Next：Elon Musk gets approval from FDA to implant his Neuralink brain chip into a second patient
Related articles
- Liverpool confirms Arne Slot as Jurgen Klopp's replacement
- China Shares Experiences in Fighting Against COVID
- Two Sessions
- Boao Forum for Asia unveils agenda for 2024 conference
- Four people killed in a house explosion in southwestern Missouri
- ACWF President Stresses People
- ACWF Holds Training Session on Women's Volunteer Work in S China's Guangxi
- ACWF President Meets Poverty Fighting Women Role Models
- Four people killed in a house explosion in southwestern Missouri
- Women Make Their Mark in Archaeological Field
- Elon Musk gets approval from FDA to implant his Neuralink brain chip into a second patient
- ACWF Launches Campaign to Care for Children in Winter Vacation
- ACWF President Presides over Symposium on Women and Children's Development in the 14th Five
- Japan's Sapporo confirms abandoning bid for 2030 Winter Olympics
- Hall of Fame outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. to lead Indianapolis 500 field in Corvette pace car
- ACWF to Step up Efforts on Protection of Women and Children's Rights, Interests
- More Foreign Women's Organizations and Overseas Chinese Support China in Battle Against NCP
- ACWF and Supreme People's Procuratorate Join Hands to Strengthen Protection of Women and Children
- Not so Cool Britannia! Noel Gallagher gives damning verdict on Keir Starmer
- National Parent
Random recommendation