DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Discovering Nothing

In Pursuit of an Elusive Northwest Passage

David L Nicandri author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of British Columbia Press

Published:1st Nov '24

Should be back in stock very soon

Discovering Nothing cover

The many attempts by navigators to find a Northwest Passage via its Pacific portal all ended in failure; however, their discoveries spurred expansionist developments that would forever alter the landscape of North America. In Discovering Nothing, David L. Nicandri maps a cast of geographic visionaries and practical explorers as they promoted or sought a workable commercial route linking the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. The discovery of the legendary northern passage proved elusive, but the equivalent land bridges that were built in the form of two transcontinental railroads changed the futures of Canada and the United States. Drawing from close readings of explorers’ personal journals, Nicandri provides readers a detailed, engaging, and multifaceted investigation into the many players and failed enterprises at the core of this search, beginning in the eighteenth century through to today — and to the unexpected impact of climate change on this fabled passage.

"Nicandri brings the impressive impact of his intense research to a revisiting of the whole question of the hunt for the Northwest Passage that baffled Cook."

-- Victor Suthren, President * Cook's Log. Vol. 47. No.

ISBN: 9780774868884

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 520g

322 pages