Straits
Beyond the Myth of Magellan
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
An uncompromising study of the fictions, the failures, and the real man behind the myth of Magellan.
With Straits, celebrated historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto subjects the surviving sources to the most meticulous scrutiny ever, providing a timely and engrossing biography of the real Ferdinand Magellan. The truth that Fernández-Armesto uncovers about Magellan’s life, his character, and the events of his ill-fated voyage offers up a stranger, darker, and even more compelling narrative than the fictional version that has been celebrated for half a millennium.
Magellan did not attempt—much less accomplish—a journey around the globe. In his lifetime he was abhorred as a traitor, reviled as a tyrant, self-condemned to destruction, and dismissed as a failure. Straits untangles the myths that made Magellan a hero and discloses the reality of the man, probing the passions and tensions that drove him to adventure and drew him to disaster. We see the mutations of his character: pride that became arrogance, daring that became recklessness, determination that became ruthlessness, romanticism that became irresponsibility, and superficial piety that became, in adversity, irrational exaltation. As the real Magellan emerges, so do his real ambitions, focused less on circumnavigating the world or cornering the global spice market than on exploiting Filipino gold. Straits is a study in failure and the paradox of Magellan’s career, showing that renown is not always a reflection of merit but often a gift and accident of circumstance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sixteenth-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan "never considered—let alone accomplished—the circumnavigation of the world" and is only "exceptional because his failure was total," according to this revelatory if somewhat ponderous biography. Historian Fernández-Armesto (Out of Our Minds) details the 1519 expedition that brought Magellan enduring fame, while simultaneously discussing the historical context and publications that created the myth of Magellan. Though Magellan was under orders from the king of Spain to find an easier passage to the Spice Islands (present-day Moluccas), Fernández-Armesto alleges that the explorer was obsessed with staking claim to the archipelago now known as the Philippines, where he knew gold was to be found. Deviating from his assignment almost immediately, Magellan executed several sailors and co-captains who questioned his route, massacred Indigenous people, and died in a suicidal battle with natives on Mactan Island in April 1521. Despite these failures, Magellan's legend formed almost immediately, thanks largely to an Italian scholar who joined the expedition and was the first to publish an account of it. Fernández-Armesto makes a persuasive case, though his tangential musings and knotty syntax sometimes make for choppy waters. Still, this is a meticulous indictment of one of the Age of Exploration's biggest names.
