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The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions
A fascinating new history of America, told through the stories of a diverse cast of ten extraordinary—and often overlooked—adventurers, from Sacagawea to Sally Ride, who pushed the boundaries of discovery and determined our national destiny.
The archetype of the American explorer, a rugged white man, has dominated our popular culture since the late eighteenth century, when Daniel Boone’s autobiography captivated readers with tales of treacherous journeys. But our commonly held ideas about American exploration do not tell the whole story—far from it.
The Explorers rediscovers a diverse group of Americans who went to the western frontier and beyond, traversing the farthest reaches of the globe and even penetrating outer space in their endeavor to find the unknown. Many escaped from lives circumscribed by racism, sexism, poverty, and discrimination as they took on great risk in unfamiliar territory. Born into slavery, James Beckwourth found freedom as a mountain man and became one of the great entrepreneurs of Gold Rush California. Matthew Henson, the son of African American sharecroppers, left rural Maryland behind to seek the North Pole. Women like Harriet Chalmers Adams ascended Peruvian mountains to gain geographic knowledge while Amelia Earhart and Sally Ride shattered glass ceilings by pushing the limits of flight.
In The Explorers, readers will travel across the vast Great Plains and into the heights of the Sierra Nevada mountains; they will traverse the frozen Arctic Ocean and descend into the jungles of South America; they will journey by canoe and horseback, train and dogsled, airplane and space shuttle. Readers will experience the exhilarating history of American exploration alongside the men and women who shared a deep drive to discover the unknown.
Across two centuries and many thousands of miles of terrain, Amanda Bellows offers an ode to our country’s most intrepid adventurers—and reveals the history of America in the process.
The archetype of the American explorer, a rugged white man, has dominated our popular culture since the late eighteenth century, when Daniel Boone’s autobiography captivated readers with tales of treacherous journeys. But our commonly held ideas about American exploration do not tell the whole story—far from it.
The Explorers rediscovers a diverse group of Americans who went to the western frontier and beyond, traversing the farthest reaches of the globe and even penetrating outer space in their endeavor to find the unknown. Many escaped from lives circumscribed by racism, sexism, poverty, and discrimination as they took on great risk in unfamiliar territory. Born into slavery, James Beckwourth found freedom as a mountain man and became one of the great entrepreneurs of Gold Rush California. Matthew Henson, the son of African American sharecroppers, left rural Maryland behind to seek the North Pole. Women like Harriet Chalmers Adams ascended Peruvian mountains to gain geographic knowledge while Amelia Earhart and Sally Ride shattered glass ceilings by pushing the limits of flight.
In The Explorers, readers will travel across the vast Great Plains and into the heights of the Sierra Nevada mountains; they will traverse the frozen Arctic Ocean and descend into the jungles of South America; they will journey by canoe and horseback, train and dogsled, airplane and space shuttle. Readers will experience the exhilarating history of American exploration alongside the men and women who shared a deep drive to discover the unknown.
Across two centuries and many thousands of miles of terrain, Amanda Bellows offers an ode to our country’s most intrepid adventurers—and reveals the history of America in the process.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published June 4, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 18, 2024
Being an explorer sounds absolutely exhausting. I want nothing to do with it, but luckily Amanda Bellows takes a look at people much more motivated than me in her book The Explorers.
Bellows does a chapter on a wide variety of people who either were from America or became famous here. There are some very well known folks like Amelia Earhart and Sacagawea to less well known explorers like James Beckwourth. The format is like many books you see nowadays where it's "The history of the world in..." things like shipwrecks or art. Bellows is a good writer and each chapter is engaging.
The problem you may run into is if you know a lot about any of the subjects. I have read a lot about Arctic exploration and space operations recently so the chapters on Matthew Henson and Sally Ride read as very high level overviews. Specifically with the Henson chapter, I felt it was missing a lot of nuance. This isn't a criticism so much as a warning for people who read a lot of history. Check the names of the people Bellows covers in this book. If you know most of them then this book is not targeted at you. If you are not a full-on history nerd like myself, this is a wonderful way to dip your toe into this side of the pool without reading a full biography on one person.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and William Morrow.)
Bellows does a chapter on a wide variety of people who either were from America or became famous here. There are some very well known folks like Amelia Earhart and Sacagawea to less well known explorers like James Beckwourth. The format is like many books you see nowadays where it's "The history of the world in..." things like shipwrecks or art. Bellows is a good writer and each chapter is engaging.
The problem you may run into is if you know a lot about any of the subjects. I have read a lot about Arctic exploration and space operations recently so the chapters on Matthew Henson and Sally Ride read as very high level overviews. Specifically with the Henson chapter, I felt it was missing a lot of nuance. This isn't a criticism so much as a warning for people who read a lot of history. Check the names of the people Bellows covers in this book. If you know most of them then this book is not targeted at you. If you are not a full-on history nerd like myself, this is a wonderful way to dip your toe into this side of the pool without reading a full biography on one person.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and William Morrow.)
January 18, 2024
I enjoyed this collection of stories of American exploration from the beginning of European settlement to space exploration. Each chapter tells a unique story, and overall this book gives a nice taste of history from a variety of people. I would have liked to see a little less details on the early childhood of the explorers, and a little more detail on their explorations and how they paved the way for the next explorer. Overall I enjoyed the book, and am thankful to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for my review.
July 2, 2024
The Explorers by Amanda Bellows is an accessible, easy-to-read book that reexamines the foundations the United States was built on. She looks through the lens of ten explorers that are women, people of color, and/or immigrants to reframe the "American Dream" through explorations we may not have learned about in school.
I really enjoyed my time with this book, reveling in each chapter and walking away feeling like I had learned quite a bit that I didn't know before. While I wish Bellows would have chosen other people to highlight instead of, say, John Muir, who is well-known in his own right and has been recently highlighted for his racist and harmful language, she doesn't shy away from the imperfections of these individuals. I think that's really important when it comes to historical figures because they are so easily and so often idealized over time and put up on pedestals that they would probably have tried to knock themselves off of.
I think this would be an excellent companion book for a high school classroom. I'm thinking particularly as a jumping off point for research papers or general add-ons to lessons when these parts are not covered in textbooks. A good beginning effort, and hopefully a book that history enthusiasts, nature lovers, and nonfiction fans alike will find enjoyable.
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for giving me advanced reader access to this title in exchange for an honest review. This title published on June 4, 2024!
I really enjoyed my time with this book, reveling in each chapter and walking away feeling like I had learned quite a bit that I didn't know before. While I wish Bellows would have chosen other people to highlight instead of, say, John Muir, who is well-known in his own right and has been recently highlighted for his racist and harmful language, she doesn't shy away from the imperfections of these individuals. I think that's really important when it comes to historical figures because they are so easily and so often idealized over time and put up on pedestals that they would probably have tried to knock themselves off of.
I think this would be an excellent companion book for a high school classroom. I'm thinking particularly as a jumping off point for research papers or general add-ons to lessons when these parts are not covered in textbooks. A good beginning effort, and hopefully a book that history enthusiasts, nature lovers, and nonfiction fans alike will find enjoyable.
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for giving me advanced reader access to this title in exchange for an honest review. This title published on June 4, 2024!
April 17, 2024
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher William Morrow for an advance copy of this book that looks at American and world history through the travels and adventures of a group of diverse people who all shared a gift of not being able stay in one spot, always wondering what was waiting in the beyond.
Exploration is part of human nature. Babies explore their new world, finding stairs to fall down, dog beds to sleep in, even expensive items to make toys of. People quit jobs to explore new options, sometimes even quite a comfortable lifestyle to explore the world out there. Humans need to know things. From the physical to the metaphysical from around the corner to what lies in the stars. America has a habit though of making our explorers bigger than life, and predominantly white males, omitted from history the tales of many who came before, came along, or lead the way, be they black, women free from bondage, or just free thinkers. The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions by Amanda Bellows, looks at a group of explorers some famous, some just known, some unknown, whose tales and achievements changed history, and brought new ways of thinking, many of which are still being discussed today.
The book is broken into ten essays with an introduction and a conclusion detailing many lost or misunderstood people, who should be deemed explorers in the grandest sense. Bellows discusses that in America most explorers are thought of as Daniel Boone types, rugged individualists who keep pushing the limits of frontiers whenever they would see the smoke of their neighbors houses. However there have always been others who went to the frontiers to see what was there for different reasons, To escape the life expected of them, the life that was forced on them, or to find a life that could be explored without exception. And this is who Bellows is discussing. Sacagawea, stolen from her home, who grew up a slave, traded into marriage, and yet without her the Lewis and Clark expedition of America might have ended in failure, or death. And yet Sacagawea was not rewarded for her work, and even her life and death after is unknown. James Beckworth, a mixed race mountain man, who traveled all over America, making a fortune outfitting prospectors in California, losing a fortune after making a road for settlers to cross. Along with these Bellows looks at the life of John Muir, Amelia Earhart, and Matthew Henson.
A history book that shows the grit that people have to do things that they have set their mind to, no matter the consequences. Bellows describes the lifes of these people, showing hardships, problems, and in one or two a lot of questionable behavior, but who excepted no limitations on their explorations. For women, for black men to travel, to set up businesses, in Henson's case go to the North Pole, is just extraordinary. As is the way there were all treated, even Muir in some cases by the press as crazy, as not acting like their kind should. And yet the persisted. Bellows has done a very good job of making all these characters from Sacagawea to Sally Ride come to life, and shares there stories and achievements quite well. Every page has a fact, a nugget of information that was new, or in some cases just a new way of thinking. Bellows has a nice style, and ability to describe boat travels on rivers, shuttle launches, even sleeping with llamas at high altitude with a sense of expertise and excitement. A really interesting history book, and one I really enjoyed.
Exploration is part of human nature. Babies explore their new world, finding stairs to fall down, dog beds to sleep in, even expensive items to make toys of. People quit jobs to explore new options, sometimes even quite a comfortable lifestyle to explore the world out there. Humans need to know things. From the physical to the metaphysical from around the corner to what lies in the stars. America has a habit though of making our explorers bigger than life, and predominantly white males, omitted from history the tales of many who came before, came along, or lead the way, be they black, women free from bondage, or just free thinkers. The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions by Amanda Bellows, looks at a group of explorers some famous, some just known, some unknown, whose tales and achievements changed history, and brought new ways of thinking, many of which are still being discussed today.
The book is broken into ten essays with an introduction and a conclusion detailing many lost or misunderstood people, who should be deemed explorers in the grandest sense. Bellows discusses that in America most explorers are thought of as Daniel Boone types, rugged individualists who keep pushing the limits of frontiers whenever they would see the smoke of their neighbors houses. However there have always been others who went to the frontiers to see what was there for different reasons, To escape the life expected of them, the life that was forced on them, or to find a life that could be explored without exception. And this is who Bellows is discussing. Sacagawea, stolen from her home, who grew up a slave, traded into marriage, and yet without her the Lewis and Clark expedition of America might have ended in failure, or death. And yet Sacagawea was not rewarded for her work, and even her life and death after is unknown. James Beckworth, a mixed race mountain man, who traveled all over America, making a fortune outfitting prospectors in California, losing a fortune after making a road for settlers to cross. Along with these Bellows looks at the life of John Muir, Amelia Earhart, and Matthew Henson.
A history book that shows the grit that people have to do things that they have set their mind to, no matter the consequences. Bellows describes the lifes of these people, showing hardships, problems, and in one or two a lot of questionable behavior, but who excepted no limitations on their explorations. For women, for black men to travel, to set up businesses, in Henson's case go to the North Pole, is just extraordinary. As is the way there were all treated, even Muir in some cases by the press as crazy, as not acting like their kind should. And yet the persisted. Bellows has done a very good job of making all these characters from Sacagawea to Sally Ride come to life, and shares there stories and achievements quite well. Every page has a fact, a nugget of information that was new, or in some cases just a new way of thinking. Bellows has a nice style, and ability to describe boat travels on rivers, shuttle launches, even sleeping with llamas at high altitude with a sense of expertise and excitement. A really interesting history book, and one I really enjoyed.
May 31, 2024
A common image of American individualism is of the rugged individual(s) who explored and conquered the frontier. Amanda Bellows The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions subverts this image, instead Bellows biographies ten individuals who made their own paths but have mostly fallen out of popular memory due to their race, gender or the passage of time. Across the book, Bellow also notes the linkages between the individuals showing that we are all connected in some way.
The book is separated in two parts. The first is focused on the exploration of the Americas. Part two looks at explorations out of the country or world, beginning with the 20th century. Half of the featured people should be recognizable, at least by name: John Muir, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Sally Ride, Sacagawea and Amelia Earhart.
It is in the other half that Bellows re-introduces 'lost' figures like African American polar explorer William Sheppard, 'mountain man' James Beckwourth or the Andean explorer Harriet Chalmers Adams.
For each of the chapters Bellows combines primary and secondary sources to provide a description of each person's family life, education or formative experiences their key accomplishment(s) and their legacy.
Recommended to readers of American history, popular culture, biographies or a fuller understanding of the past.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
The book is separated in two parts. The first is focused on the exploration of the Americas. Part two looks at explorations out of the country or world, beginning with the 20th century. Half of the featured people should be recognizable, at least by name: John Muir, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Sally Ride, Sacagawea and Amelia Earhart.
It is in the other half that Bellows re-introduces 'lost' figures like African American polar explorer William Sheppard, 'mountain man' James Beckwourth or the Andean explorer Harriet Chalmers Adams.
For each of the chapters Bellows combines primary and secondary sources to provide a description of each person's family life, education or formative experiences their key accomplishment(s) and their legacy.
Recommended to readers of American history, popular culture, biographies or a fuller understanding of the past.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
July 17, 2024
So before I get to the part that really pushed me over into hating this book, let me talk about the experience of reading it up until the epilogue. It’s fairly well written, but there’s no narrative propulsion, no idea that links each essay together. I’m not sure what the logic was for choosing these particular explorers, nor do I understand what it is Bellows wants to say about America. Each chapter is remarkably short and embarrassingly shallow. Nothing is offered here that you can’t learn on Wikipedia, and without any sort of driving central idea, that’s what the whole book ends up feeling like: a compilation of wiki articles. I learned absolutely nothing here.
And all of that is bad enough before we get to the epilogue which suddenly is breathlessly talking about Elon Musk and the need for America to remain “militarily competitive” via the hilariously forgettable Space Force. It’s a book that ostensibly wants to re-center women and POC in the history of America (by only talking about women like Sacagawea and Laura Ingalls Wilder and Amelia Earhart, who we all know quite well already) but then just reiterates the logics of empire and colonialism in the end. It’s such a weird and terrible way to end this already bad book and it pushed me right into hating the entire thing.
And all of that is bad enough before we get to the epilogue which suddenly is breathlessly talking about Elon Musk and the need for America to remain “militarily competitive” via the hilariously forgettable Space Force. It’s a book that ostensibly wants to re-center women and POC in the history of America (by only talking about women like Sacagawea and Laura Ingalls Wilder and Amelia Earhart, who we all know quite well already) but then just reiterates the logics of empire and colonialism in the end. It’s such a weird and terrible way to end this already bad book and it pushed me right into hating the entire thing.
June 29, 2024
The things I really liked:
-the diversity
-the inclusion of people I had never heard of before alongside people I was familiar with
Both of those things make me really want to recommend this book widely! I did generally very much enjoy this book. But. This book also made me realize that this is not my favorite format for reading about these kinds of people. I would much rather read books that focus in great detail about one person/place/adventure, instead of ones like this where you're reading about 10 different people over 400 pages. That's a me thing though, so I didn't mark this book down for it because I did really enjoy this one overall. I wish I hadn't left my library audiobook loan to the last couple days because I really had to rush through it, and I would have enjoyed taking more time and paying more attention.
-the diversity
-the inclusion of people I had never heard of before alongside people I was familiar with
Both of those things make me really want to recommend this book widely! I did generally very much enjoy this book. But. This book also made me realize that this is not my favorite format for reading about these kinds of people. I would much rather read books that focus in great detail about one person/place/adventure, instead of ones like this where you're reading about 10 different people over 400 pages. That's a me thing though, so I didn't mark this book down for it because I did really enjoy this one overall. I wish I hadn't left my library audiobook loan to the last couple days because I really had to rush through it, and I would have enjoyed taking more time and paying more attention.
April 17, 2024
The exploration of the Americas or explorations done by Americans starting with Sacagawea and Lewis and Clark through Sally Ride's journey into space. All of these offer a glimpse into the wilderness and the people who courageously set about walking blindly into it. They traveled a path where few or none had gone before and some gave their lives while pursuing that dream. This collection offers readers insight into new explorers not always included in history books. Interesting to history buffs, armchair explorers and those looking to forge new paths of their own. They are listed in chronological order but can be enjoyed just as much reading them in any order. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.
July 14, 2024
I received a gorgeous hardcover copy of this book for free via the Goodreads Giveaways program and would like to thank anyone who had a hand in making that happen!
This is a really fun and inspiring look at the thrilling expeditions of some lesser known American explorers that didn't necessarily get the credit that they deserved at the time of their accomplishments due to their race or their sex. Ranging from when our nation was first being explored by the US Corps of Discovery to the Space Race it creates a picture of the indomitable American spirit of exploration and how that has shaped both the American landscape as well as political relations with the rest of the world for better or for worse. A very interesting read!
This is a really fun and inspiring look at the thrilling expeditions of some lesser known American explorers that didn't necessarily get the credit that they deserved at the time of their accomplishments due to their race or their sex. Ranging from when our nation was first being explored by the US Corps of Discovery to the Space Race it creates a picture of the indomitable American spirit of exploration and how that has shaped both the American landscape as well as political relations with the rest of the world for better or for worse. A very interesting read!
May 20, 2024
I liked the premise of this book very much in that you don't often hear about non-white, non-male explorers. I agree with other reviewers in that the chapters are a bit of a gloss over the deep history that many of these individuals left behind. There are space and attention constraints, but it can get frustrating if you know anything about any of the people featured. I think it would have been better to focus on lesser known people so as to inspire readers to continue learning about them.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review, but all opinions are my own.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review, but all opinions are my own.
February 11, 2024
There has been a trend in recent years of episodic books, or those books that break periods of history down into manageable, almost stand-alone pieces, that together make an entire narrative. This book does that by focusing on ten different expedition throught America's history. You could read these ten in any order, and at any time, which I believe is a strength of this book. It's well written and worth picking up.
June 30, 2024
I won a copy of "The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions" on Goodreads First Reads. This book was fascinating and I learned so much that I didn't know before. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in our country.
July 22, 2024
An interesting look at some of the”less popular” American explorers. I particularly liked how they would mention previous explorers in other explorers chapters to provide more context and stronger timelines to every chapter.
July 1, 2024
Loved this book and its stories of American explorers.
July 15, 2024
2.5 stars, overall pretty good but there were a couple explorers that I wasn’t drawn into and ended up skipping their chapters.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews