Travel -Human Movement in Space and Time Consensus of reading · Trade was crucial for making people travel, both on land and overseas · Looks at geographical hindrances of travel such as harder oceans · Full of stories of people travelling · Focus on "great" explorers · Maps were cultural over anything else · Sweeping narratives are clear · Empirical security again robbers on some trading routes · Question over if Marco Polo ever actually went to China - he supports him? · Explanation that Europe took over due to Asian internal issues and lack of motivation to travel · Divergence and subsequent convergence of cultures happened · Ambitious work - tried to condense huge swathes of history Felipe Fernández-Armesto . He is a British historian, born in 1950 to a Spanish father and British mother · His parents were both active journalists which could play into the narrative tendencies displayed in his work · Known for a flair in his writing · Approaches grand histories in general - other works have included a focus on the Spanish Armada or Millenium: A History of Our Last Thousand Years (1995) · Seeks connections and almost a narrative continuity between grand histories - could be why he specialises in sweeping histories that cover hundreds of years (such as Pathfinders) · Has taken on the concept of "civilisation" as a Eurocentric, dangerous and imperialistic term. "Civilisations is anything but a hymn to progress."(https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/oct/22/historybooks.nealaschers on Presentation/Other Presentations Chapters 1 - 3 · Divergence of cultures to convergence · Sources did not come from pioneers but from merchants and pilgrims meaning we can't talk in detail about how new routes were formed - most likely accidentally found some places on a journey with the purpose of discovering (based on myths etc.) - recreated explorations in the 70s - people would use the elements, like currents, to find new land . An Icelandic man discovered the New World before Columbus according to his reports but this was disregarded - he is renowned in Icelandic legend · Grand narratives · Uses archaeological evidence as well as anthropological but limited use of maps · Clear influence from his Spanish heritage · Can ramble in his writing and focus on narratives and explorers
· Didn't find uninhabited land meaning it wasn't "new" to everyone but it became something when everyone heard about it · Chapter titles - grand narrative ideas again · He very much focusses on the story (result of journalist parents) but appears condescending in some ways when thinking about the technology we have now but also we don't do these things and it doesn't make their expeditions any less amazing · Explorer is an engineering of history's infrastructure · With these sweeping histories, you could lose any deviation from an upward trend meaning large amounts of history would be forgotten · As we know how the "story" ends, history could become an ancestor worship type of work · Tupaia was a Polynesian priest who led Cook