Rating: 
Summary: The Discovery and the Aftermath
Review: In a way, this book comes in two flavors - Captain Cook's actual voyages, and the author's visiting the places that the captain had discovered. Of this, the three voyages are well known and have been written up sufficiently. But Horwitz puts an interesting slant on the natives Cook encountered rather than the discoveries themselves. We learn about the Tahitians and their customs, the Maoris of New Zealand, the Aborigines of Australia, and the people of Tonga, of Hawaii, and the Aleuts of Unalaska. He acquaints us with Cook's main helper, the biologist Joseph Banks, and some of his officers, such as William Bligh of later mutiny fame, and John Ledyard who is still remembered in Connecticut (ironically, the town bearing his name now sports a gigantic native Indian gambling casino). And so the islands were pristine and at peace. It is the author's aim to show us how this has changed into murder, thievery and disease. There are not many of the natives left and those he found were most anxious to forget about Cook. his discoveries and their aftermath. It would be wrong, of course, to blame all this on Cook. If it had not been for him, somebody else would have discovered the islands of the Pacific - and probably with the same results. The conclusion: One should not supplant an original culture with one's own imported one. Both will suffer and there will never be a satisfactory result. Yet such action continues into our 21st century.
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Summary: Blue Latitudes
Review: What do we know about one of the greatest circumnavigators and explorers of all times, Captain James Cook?
Perhaps it can be best summed up in the introduction to Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Horwitz's riveting book Blue Latitutdes, when the author refers to Alistair MacLean's statement "we know all about Cook and we know nothing about him." To unravel the mystery, Horwitz retraces the three great epic voyages of Cook. We travel with him to such destinations as Bora Bora, the Bering Sea, The Great Barrier Reef, Tonga, Kealakekua Bay, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Savage Island, and Alaska.
Meticulously Horwitz researches his topic and brilliantly intertwines his own personal travel experiences with those documented by Cook and his crew.
Moreover our author's keen intellect is effectively captured in the conversations he conducts with many of the various local inhabitants whom he spontaneously encounters during his wanderings. From these discussions and research we notice the dichotomy of Cook's legacy. On the one hand there are those, such as historian Bernard Smith, who contend, "that wherever he went he was spreading the curses much more liberally than the benefits of European civilization."
In fact, some of the natives and their descendants Horwitz encounters, considered Cook to be a heinous character that wrought on native people: disease, greed, thievery and prostitution.
On the other hand, many rightfully point out that when Cook commenced his voyages, a third of the world remained blank. When he violently was killed in 1779 in Hawaii, the world's map was substantially complete. Apart from researching the geographical settings of Cook's voyages, Horwitz also experienced the life as a shipman during the era of this great globetrotter.
In order to accomplish this feat, the author initiates his journey by signing up as a volunteer crewmember of a museum-quality replica of Cook's first ship called the Endeavour.
The boat travelled from Gig Harbour, Washington to Vancouver, British Colombia.
At each port the ship's professional crew took on volunteers to help sail the next leg.
The objective was to experience the lifestyles of eighteenth century sailors and, as we discover from reading the first chapter, this mission was accomplished, to a limited degree. Blue Latitudes is a truly remarkable book in that the author tackles a considerable undertaking in order to expose the ghosts of the past. No doubt, after reading the book, we gain a tremendous amount of knowledge pertaining to this renowned adventurer. Although, we may still ask, will the real James Cook stand up, in order that we can identify him? This review first appeared on reviewer's own site
www.bookpleasures.com
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: Horwitz has pulled off a great hybrid here-- part travel adventure, part mystery, part history. An unfolding account of Cook's three world-changing voyages is interwoven with Horwitz's own journey in search of Cook himself. Horwitz manages to see both Cook the heroic discoverer and Cook the harbinger of the destruction of non-western civilizations. He can also balance the sweep and majesty of his historical material with the detail and grit of ludicrous modern bar-hopping. Along the way Horwitz manages to give shape and form to what most of us sort of half-remember about Cook, while uncovering new bits of hard information and interpretive insight. And all through he uses a the deft hand and keen eye of a journalist to bring it all alive. It's witty and funny and informative and gripping and moving all at the same time, as if Spielberg directed a documentary written by the History Channel but cast with the correspondents of the Daily Show. This does what the best history writing can do-- engage you even if you didn't think you knew or cared about the subject in the first place.
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Summary: Adventure in the Pacific
Review: The question often asked of Columbus - how could he "discover" America if there were already people here could apply to Captain Cook and his 3 voyages of discovery in the Pacific. Retracing some of the journeys, Horwitz sets out across the world to discover Cook, and the world he encountered. This is helped by the fact that a lot of the remote areas have changed very little in the intervening 200 plus years. But Horwitz also shows us that Cook's travels are remembered in differing ways - from worship, to indifference, to outright hostility, depending on where you go. While Columbus is honored with numerous locations, and others like Magellan have landmarks named after them. Yet Cook was more self effacing and thus very little bears the name of this explorer. This makes the journey even more interesting, as you try to get into the head and person of the great Captain. Some of the book is depressing and almost seems an aside. Repeatedly Horwitz and his friend run into walls trying to look beyond the published history and understand the early European - Native contacts through the people left behind. An oft repeated theme is the way Cook is looked up as a monster by the natives today, having shattered paradise with his arrival. Horwitz juxtaposes the historical journeys of Cook seen through logs and writings of the time, and what is to be discovered today. Much of the writing is very enjoyable and brings us along to visit remote areas in the Pacific that we most likely would not visit ourselves. Some parts get long winded, or stretch for inclusion, but overall the book moves along nicely and pays honor to the explorer and his place in the world, both in the 17th century, and the 21st.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent, informative, amusing book.
Review: Decent, informative, and amusing book.
(6 out of 10) Tony Horwitz' book, Blue Latitude, is part travelogue, and part history book. The author writes about his tales retracing the three voyages that Captain Cook took to the Pacific Ocean around 1770-1780. Horwitz' retracing is not exact nor the site visitations in chronological order with Cook's visits. This is mainly due to the logistics of travel. If memory serves me correctly, Horwitz visits the North west coast of America, then swings south to Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, back up to Cook islands, England, the island of Tonga, the Unalaska Alaskan Islands (you read that right) and onto Hawaii. The cultural and environmental demise of most of these islands is much the same. Materialism, missionaries, and venereal diseases would devastate each island, destroying much of the culture. Many would despise Cook's journey, but ironically, it would be Cook and his crew's journals that would help these islands reconstruct the traditions of their ancestors. Horwitz covers a lot of ground. From what it was like living on a ship, to the hardships of living in England, to the customs of Pacific culture. His manner is that of a well informed friend. There were times where you were pressing to know more, but overall, I was happy he gave perhaps a slightly more than cursory treatment of the various topics. Since I'm not a history buff, nor a serious traveler, but rather part of the "masses" on this subject, anything more than what Horwitz presents would have been nauseating details. Let me list some of the best parts of the book. The opening chapters describing Horwitz experience on replica of the Endeavor, the boat used by Cook on his first journey, really conveys to the reader the danger, and the toil that sea travel was back in the 18th century. That chapter was the most memorable, and it's lessons of hardship provides a good background for the rest of the book. Of course, that doesn't meant the rest of the book is all down hill. The Epicurean tastes of his best science officer, Banks who was a party animal, when contrasted against the hard life of the rest of Cook's crew was funny in a rather dark way. Perhaps the most intriguing story was the circumstances of Cook's death in Hawaii, and it is here I really wish Horwitz had gone into more detail. The modern day travels were also amusing. These include a traditional, drunken party in Australia celebrating Cook's discovery of Australia which to some degree reminds me of a crude Mardi Gras-like celebration in New Orleans. The quest for the Red banana on the island of Tonga, a traditional fruit believed to be forever lost. The brutally cold visits to the Unalaska islands of Alaska make you marvel at the temerity of Cook and his crew. And of course, there was Horwitz funny, drunk and quick-witted friend from Australia, Roger who would travel with Horwitz for most of the itinerary. Perhaps the most serious thing lacking in this book are the pictures. It would be great to see the ship that Cook sailed on. It would have been informative to see the before and after pictures of the various islands overrun by western culture. This book is neither a boring nor exciting. Think of this book as sitting down with a good friend and having him tell you his vacation stories. It's a pleasant experience, but since this is a book not a friend, you can't ask any questions and 'direct' the conversation. In that sense the book can be frustrating. The friend-conversation analogy is apt. Just like friends, at times I wanted to know about Tony Horwitz, and not so much about his adventures. Horwitz came off as more a reporter, and I think his book could have benefited from telling us what exactly he was thinking at the time. Is it possible to think of Cook, every thought throughout the several months? Probably not. To that end, books similar to Blue Latitudes but where the authors have no problem telling you exactly what they were thinking, I recommend the following: Travels by Michael Crichton
Primate's Memoirs by Robert Sapolsky The first is about the spiritual awakenings of the author. The latter is about the author's adventures in Africa as a grad student studying primates. So in summary, Blue Latitude is a decent read filled with amusing anecdotes of history and of the author's travels. It's a light book, and because of that, you may not come away with any sort of wisdom. But for those who may be wondering what it would be like to adventure or vacation on the "high seas", then this book can provide you insight, and for some, it might just be the vacation they need.
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Summary: In the flotsam of Cook's wake
Review: "With only one break in the encircling reef, the lagoon couldn't flush the sewage pumped into its once-crystalline water. If the wind and tide ran the wrong way, scum coated the surface. Overfishing had killed off much of the marine life. Fresh water was so scarce it had to be cut off each night from nine P.M. to five A.M." Such is the contemporary description in BLUE LATITUDES of the over-developed Bora-Bora lagoon, one of Captain James Cook's Polynesian landfalls in the summer of 1769. During the period 1768 to 1779 at the behest of the British Admiralty, Cook of the Royal Navy captained three 3-year voyages to the Pacific Ocean in attempts to discover either the continent rumored to be at the bottom of the world, or the much-sought Northwest Passage to Asia. Cook found neither, but he was the first European to see and chart many of the islands and landmass margins in that vast watery expanse. In BLUE LATITUDES, author Tony Horwitz follows in Cook's wake to the most celebrated of the latter's landfalls, both north and south: Tahiti, Bora-Bora, New Zealand, Botany Bay (Australia), the Great Barrier Reef, Niue, Tonga, Unalaska (in the Aleutians), and Hawaii. To my tastes, this book is a near-perfect travel essay. Not only are Cook's experiences described from the author's study of the great explorer's journals, but Horwitz paints a present-day picture of places that I'll likely never visit except in my mind's eye. And he writes with humor and perception. So, I'm both educated and entertained; it doesn't get better than that. The only thing lacking is a photo section - something illogically missing from too many travel narratives on the bookshelves. (Why most travel writers neglect to provide visual reinforcement remains a mystery to me.) Tony begins his book with a nice touch - his personal agony during five days as a volunteer sailor aboard a full-scale reconstruction of Cook's first ship, The Endeavor, as it sailed from Gig Harbor, WA, to Vancouver, BC. At the end of his short voyage, Horwitz and the reader marvel at the endurance of the 19th century swabbie during literally years at sea because, as the author describes himself: "My hands were so swollen and raw that I couldn't make a fist or do the buttons on my shirt. Every limb throbbed. My eyes twitched and blurred from fatigue ... (I had) tar stuck in my hair (and) grime embedded in every inch of exposed skin." Two-thirds of the way through the volume, in order to discover something of the inner Cook, Horwitz takes us to North Yorkshire, England, where the explorer was born in 1728, and where he took to sea from the Whitby docks in 1746 as a coal ship's apprentice. In the following chapter, it's on to London, where Cook lived with his wife between his celebrated voyages. Sadly, there are few genuine traces of the intrepid captain remaining on his home island. Admittedly, the modern world has taken cruel toll on the exotic places that so captivated Cook and his crews. For example, Horwitz describes Papeete, Tahiti as an overpriced, congested mass of billboards, car fumes, crumbling sidewalks, litter, and ferroconcrete. Even the monument on the Hawaiian beach commemorating the spot of Cook's death at the hands of the natives is marred with graffiti and surrounded by trash. Cook has been blamed by some as being the point man for West's destruction of Paradise. But, at the end of BLUE LATITUDES, this reader, at least, stands in awe of the man.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Read
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The author structures the book beautifully, going between Cook's explorations in the 18th century, and the author's own adventures as he revisits those places. Horvitz even has a buddy, single, engaged in drinking and whoring. Almost adds some comic relief, but also gives a different perspective on the places visited. For those interested, look into "The Longest Voyages" which chronicles Magellan and Drakes explorations. Not as good a book, but similar as it follows these first time European adventures into the unknown.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: If you like Bill Bryson, you'll probably enjoy this book too. Tony Horwitz combines a travelogue with a biography of Captain Cook. Very insightful, yet humorous writing. I learned a lot about what effect Cook and the people who followed in his footsteps have had on the Polynesian culture. Horwitz is also a great speaker. I saw him on BookTV (C-SPAN2) a while ago, when the book first came out.
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Summary: Horwitz worked as a sailor aboard a replica of Cook's ship
Review: Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz is essential his travel memoir of a voyage taken some two centuries after James Cook's epic venture. Horwitz worked as a sailor aboard a replica of Cook's ship for the purpose of retracing that momentous voyage of discover; had the privilege of meeting island kings and beauty queens along the way; and encountered unique cultures, breathtaking sights, and formed cherished friendships. Ideal reading for dedicated armchair travelers, Blue Latitudes also contemplates the meaning Cook's journey, its historical events, and its lasting legacy for the modern day.
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Summary: Life imitates Star Trek
Review: Here is Tony Horwitz, boldly going where Captain Cook has gone before, noting first of all Cook's similarities to Star Trek's Captain Kirk. Once he gets that justification for the book's subtitle out of the way, we are treated to a serviceable biography of Cook, coupled with an enjoyable travelogue of Horwitz's adventures. At this late date Cook cannot be restored to his former place as a hero of Nineteenth Century Civilization. But, as Horwitz demonstrates, neither does he deserve to be reduced to a simple gaslight villain of the multi-culti crowd. Horwitz explores his origins and rather enigmatic personality, retracing his path, recording the thumps of colliding cultures on his voyages. Some encounters went very well, others badly, for both sides. Horwitz neatly punctures the noble savage stereotype at one point, relating the fate of a French explorer who was under the spell of Rousseau, and felt the islanders to be harmless innocents, "new sprung from Nature". The natives killed him anyway. Horwitz plays his own travels mostly for laughs, chronicling himself in pratfall after pratfall, in the midst of crude, wisecracking Aussies and Kiwis. It's great fun, and we do occasionally draw some illuminating contrasts between his travels and Cook's. But it's mostly just fun, which, after all, is what travel is supposed to be. Blue Latitudes is another insightful romp through distant lands--waters, in this case--with freelancer Tony Horwitz. Thank goodness for lovers of travel writing he can't seem to land a real job!
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