Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Prince Henry 'the Navigator': A Life by P. E. Russell ISBN: 0-300-08233-9 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.69 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A very thorough and somewhat deflating biography
Comment: This is the definitive English language biography of Prince Henry of Portugal, known as "The Navigator." The author, a retired former director of Portuguese studies at Oxford, has researched his subject as thoroughly as the source material allows. As is the case with other exhaustively researched biographies, this one makes its subject appear less heroic than legend implies. Though Henry did sponsor the early Portuguese exploration of the West African coast, his motives were commercial and religious rather than scientific. Russell, describing Henry's failures as well as his successes, concludes that the Prince was essentially a man of the late middle ages, not the Renaissance. Nonetheless, Henry initiated the astonishing adventure of a small country extending its reach around the world.
Rating: 5
Summary: Biography of the Father of the Afro-Atlantic Slave Trade
Comment: Sir Peter Russell, late Professor of Spanish in Oxford University, has written a marvelously detailed biography of Prince Henry, commonly known as "The Navigator." Russell manages deftly to destroy most of the nonsense propagated about Henry by idolotrous biographers in the past, especially those who wrote during the period of the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal. The Salazar regime made Prince Henry into a national icon and loaded him down with numerous virtues he never had, such as scientific expertise, astronomical knowledge, etc., etc. At the same time scarcely a mention was made of his role as the founding father of the Afro-Atlantic slave trade and other far from admirable characteristics, such as his military incompetence and fraternal disloyalty. Russell's portrait puts paid to all the previous puffery. [One of his most delicious remarks is to the effect that "in Henryspeak" conversion and enslavement were "interchangable terms."] The books is based upon at least 40 years of research and is the most detailed biography ever of this late medieval figure. It is must reading for all students of European expansion and for those who wish to understand the modern world. A masterpiece!
Rating: 4
Summary: Into the Unknown......
Comment: Prince Henry 'the Navigator' provides the reader an intricately detailed account of the life of this crusader, geographical visionary, and aggressive entrepreneur. Seeking an end around the Saharan caravan trade, Henry pushed maritime exploration down Africa's Atlantic coast into a region shrouded in myth and mystery. Ostensibly claiming a crusader's fervor for the conversion of the barbarous, Henry initiated the Afro-Atlantic slave trade, charted Africa's western shoreline, commercially developed the Azores, battled desperately for control of the Canaries, and, as time and events allowed, launched invasions of Morocco with varying degrees of success.
Henry thrust medieval Europe into the Atlantic providing the impetus for empires to come. Like any mortal, he was imprisoned by the consciousness of his times, yet unfettered in his drive to explore the unknown. Both flawed and famous, P.E. Russell's Prince Henry is placed firmly within the chronological context. He can be detested for his commerce in flesh, his cynical exploitation of faith, and his innate impulse to conquer, but he would then be measured not by the standards of his day, but of our own. In settling this score, Russell admirably adheres to objectivity.
Despite spotty source material, P.E. Russell has presented a comprehensive, entirely readable account of Henry the Navigator. This is a solid and satisfying book which easily merits a rating of 4 stars.
 |
Title: The Portuguese Empire, 1415-1808: A World on the Move by A. J. R. Russell-Wood ISBN: 0801859557 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: July, 1998 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
 |
Title: A Concise History of Portugal by David Birmingham ISBN: 0521438802 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 17 June, 1993 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
 |
Title: Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal's History and Culture by Jose Saramago, Amanda Hopkinson, Nick Caistor ISBN: 0156007134 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 06 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
 |
Title: The Lusiads by Luis Vaz De Camoes, Landeg White, Luis Vaz de Camoies ISBN: 0192801511 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
 |
Title: The Traveller's History of Portugal (The Traveller's History Series) by Ian C. Robertson ISBN: 1566564409 Publisher: Interlink Pub Group Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
