The extraordinary sixty-thousand-year history of how the Pacific islands were settled.
Nick Thomas is an Australian anthropologist, who was co-curator of the Royal Academy exhibition Oceania. He is Professor of Historical Anthropology, Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, and has been a Fellow of Trinity College since 2007. He was awarded the 2010 Wolfson History Prize for Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire.
Weaving together material culture and personal accounts of the
author's own time in some of these islands, the book is an
elucidating, accessible, and well-illustrated guide to the long
history of Oceanic settlement and connections
*Minerva Magazine*
How and why did these explorers cross vast ocean distances to
unseen landfalls?... Nicholas Thomas takes readers on a narrative
odyssey to match their intrepid journeys'
*Wall Street Journal, Books of the Year*
Highlights a dizzying burst of new research that draws on advanced
genetics, linguistics and, not least, a revival of voyaging itself
by indigenous navigators
*Economist*
Thomas should be commended for his engaging writing style, which
regularly had me looking forward to turning the page. I would not
be surprised if, after reading this masterpiece, many readers are
compelled to take up voyaging themselves
*Science Magazine*
Blending ethnohistory, archaeology, and linguistics, Thomas asks
the big questions about a civilization that has seldom been
recognized as such... Brings a welcome world-systems approach to
Oceania, an understudied region'
*Kirkus Reviews*
With lucid explanations of modern advances in historical
anthropology and evocative reflections on the author's own
fascination with Oceania, this is an accessible introduction to an
astounding chapter in human history
*Publishers Weekly*
Thomas successfully draws readers into this fascinating,
often-overlooked history and offers plenty of resources for those
looking to read more
*Library Journal*
Written in an engaging style, Thomas points to indigenous
technologies and the reactivation of navigational knowledge which
perfectly captures the vital and energetic relationship Pacific
peoples enjoy today with the ocean that defines their lives
*Maia Nuku, Curator for Oceanic Art, Metropolitan Museum of
Art*
Voyagers will deeply engage and delight new readers of Pacific
histories, while scholars will marvel at the author's elegant,
concise chronicle
*Matt Matsuda, Rutgers University*
The peopling of the Pacific is one of humanity's greatest feats of
imagination, ingenuity, and courage. Voyagers authoritatively
recounts that achievement with both sympathy and wonder
*David Armitage, Harvard University*
Voyagers is a refreshing addition to the canon of literature that
contemplates Oceanic navigation... At once global yet intimate,
shaped by Thomas's own Pacific journeys, and filled with wonderful
images, historical and contemporary, that pay homage to Oceania's
profound relationship with the sea
*Noelle Kahanu, University of Hawai'i*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |