At the start of the twentieth century, Theodore Davis was the most famous archaeologist in the world; his career turned tomb-robbing and treasure-hunting into a science. Using six of Davis's most important discoveries-- from the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut's sarcophagus to the exq…
The only American to have climbed all fourteen of the world's eight-thousand-meter peaks sets his sights on Mount Everest, in a work that combines his own climbs as well as narratives of famous climbs throughout the last century.
The life of Roald Amundsen, the greatest of all polar explorers, has never before been told in its full brilliance, heartbreak, and glory. As the 20th century began, the four great geographical mysteries -- the Northwest Passage, the Northeast Passage, the South Pole, and the No…
The author chronicles his present-day journey to find Ciudad Blanca, the legendary White City rumored to exist in the rain forests of Nicaragua's and Honduras' Mosquito Coast, following in the footsteps of the explorer and World War II spy Theodore Morde, who set out on the same…
A riveting tale of the weather's most vicious monster--the supercell tornado--that recreates the origins of meteorology, and the quirky, pioneering, weather-obsessed scientists who helped change America.
Describes the epic journey undertaken by Douglas Mawson, who suffered starvation, the loss of his team, and a crippling foot injury as he resorted to crawling back to base camp during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1913.
"In June 1992, best friends Jim Davidson and Mike Price stood triumphantly atop Washington's Mount Rainier, celebrating what they hoped would be the first of many milestones in their lives as passionate young mountaineers. Instead, their conquest gave way to catastrophe when a c…
"In June 1992, best friends Jim Davidson and Mike Price stood triumphantly atop Washington's Mount Rainier, celebrating what they hoped would be the first of many milestones in their lives as passionate young mountaineers. Instead, their conquest gave way to catastrophe when a c…
Chronicles the first American expedition to Mount Everest in May 1963, profiling the team of climbers while examining the impact the mission had on the American consciousness and sense of identity during the Cold War.
"Bound for Antarctica, where polar explorer Ernest Shackleton planned to cross on foot the last uncharted continent, the Endurance set sail from England in August 1914. In January 1915, after battling its way for six weeks through a thousand miles of pack ice and now only a day'…
When Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, the long-established trade routes to the East became treacherous and expensive. Enterprising young men took to the sea in search of new lands, new routes, new markets, and of course the possibility of glory and vast fortunes. His…
From the acclaimed author of The Pattons and Patriot Pirates: a book that celebrates America's forgotten war correspondents, men who were legends in their time; who, between 1860 and 1910, between the Civil War and the Spanish-American War'when empires fell and dynasties flouris…
"John Muir and the Ice That Started a Fire takes two of the most compelling elements in the narrative of wild America, John Muir and Alaska, and combines them into a brisk and engaging biography. John Muir was a fascinating man who was many things: inventor, scientist, revolutio…
A dual biography of two of the most compelling elements in the narrative of wild America, John Muir and Alaska. John Muir was a fascinating man who was many things: inventor, scientist, revolutionary, druid (a modern day Celtic priest), husband, son, father and friend, and a shi…
"John Muir and the Ice That Started a Fire takes two of the most compelling elements in the narrative of wild America, John Muir and Alaska, and combines them into a brisk and engaging biography. John Muir was a fascinating man who was many things: inventor, scientist, revolutio…