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A review by misterjay
Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 by Nathaniel Philbrick
4.0
Nathaniel Philbrick's "Sea of Glory" is a fascinating look at what should have been a shining jewel in the history of the young United States. Instead, "America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842", the subtitle of the book, is a largely forgotten, or unknown, piece of early American history.
Philbrick's narrative focuses on the leader of the expedition, Charles Wilkes, a troubled, emotionally unstable man who drove his crew to accomplish enormous feat after enormous feat but, at the same time, alienated everyone around him. And while the American public cared quite a lot about the feats accomplished - the discovery of Antarctica, the charting of the Fijian islands, the discovery of thousands of species of plants and animals - they cared more about the courts martial and scandals that occupied the decades after the conclusion of the expedition.
By choosing to focus on the leader of the expedition, and his tempestuous relationships with his officers, and the politics of shipboard life under a dictatorship, the book creates an intimate portrait of a man who knows he is in over his head and yet who refuses to either give up or ask for aid. This focus is both the book's strength and its biggest flaw: as a biography of Charles Wilkes, it is very good. As a chronicle of the Ex. Ex. it barely scratches the surface of what is, truly, a lost adventure of the American people.
This is an understandable problem, however. The expedition was so long and accomplished so much that to chronicle the whole would require several volumes. In fact, the published chronicles of the Ex. Ex. by the sailors and scientists who made the journey do occupy several dozens of volumes and Philbrick is exemplary in citing his sources and recommending others for further reading.
Which may be the key to reading this book: Rather than reading this as a complete history, readers would do well to consider this an introductory passage, an Ex. Ex. 101, so to speak, and to follow up with any piqued curiosities via the reading list appended to the back of the book.
All that aside, Philbrick is a talented writer and historian and succeeds in making a lost part of American history accessible, engaging, and fun. The writing is tight and brief without being terse. Quotations and other lengthy, verbose passages are kept to a minimum yet are frequent enough to support the narrative the author has constructed.
Recommended.
Philbrick's narrative focuses on the leader of the expedition, Charles Wilkes, a troubled, emotionally unstable man who drove his crew to accomplish enormous feat after enormous feat but, at the same time, alienated everyone around him. And while the American public cared quite a lot about the feats accomplished - the discovery of Antarctica, the charting of the Fijian islands, the discovery of thousands of species of plants and animals - they cared more about the courts martial and scandals that occupied the decades after the conclusion of the expedition.
By choosing to focus on the leader of the expedition, and his tempestuous relationships with his officers, and the politics of shipboard life under a dictatorship, the book creates an intimate portrait of a man who knows he is in over his head and yet who refuses to either give up or ask for aid. This focus is both the book's strength and its biggest flaw: as a biography of Charles Wilkes, it is very good. As a chronicle of the Ex. Ex. it barely scratches the surface of what is, truly, a lost adventure of the American people.
This is an understandable problem, however. The expedition was so long and accomplished so much that to chronicle the whole would require several volumes. In fact, the published chronicles of the Ex. Ex. by the sailors and scientists who made the journey do occupy several dozens of volumes and Philbrick is exemplary in citing his sources and recommending others for further reading.
Which may be the key to reading this book: Rather than reading this as a complete history, readers would do well to consider this an introductory passage, an Ex. Ex. 101, so to speak, and to follow up with any piqued curiosities via the reading list appended to the back of the book.
All that aside, Philbrick is a talented writer and historian and succeeds in making a lost part of American history accessible, engaging, and fun. The writing is tight and brief without being terse. Quotations and other lengthy, verbose passages are kept to a minimum yet are frequent enough to support the narrative the author has constructed.
Recommended.