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Title: Beyond the Blue Horizon

Subtitle: How the Earliest Mariners Unlocked the Secrets of the Oceans

Author: Brian Fagan

Narrator: George K. Wilson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-22-13

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 29 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

In Beyond the Blue Horizon, best-selling science historian Brian Fagan tackles his richest topic yet: the enduring mystery of the oceans, the planets most forbidding terrain. This is not a tale of Columbus or Hudson, but of much earlier mariners. From the moment when ancient Polynesians first dared to sail beyond the horizon, Fagan vividly explains how our mastery of the oceans has changed history, even before history was written.

Beyond the Blue Horizon delves into the very beginnings of humanitys long and intimate relationship with the sea. It willl enthrall listeners who enjoyed Longitude, Simon Winchesters Atlantic, or in its scope and its insightful linking of technology and culture, Guns, Germs, and Steel. What drove humans to risk their lives on open water? How did early sailors unlock the secrets of winds, tides, and the stars they steered by? What were the earliest ocean crossings like?

With compelling detail, Brian Fagan reveals how seafaring evolved so that the vast realms of the sea gods were transformed from barriers into highways that hummed with commerce. Indeed, for most of human history, oceans have been the most vital connectors of far-flung societies. From bamboo rafts in the Java Sea to the caravels of the Age of Discovery, from Easter Island to Crete, Brian Fagan crafts a captivating narrative of humanitys urge to seek out distant shores, of the daring men and women who did so, and of the mark they have left on civilization.

Members Reviews:

Expand your mind and your knowledge!

I love reading about things I don't know presented in an interesting fashion. The book is a good overview of the evolution of sea trading. It starts out very early in civilization and presents logical evidence of how humankind expanded to new and different locations and eventually conquered the seas globally. The author says you can read this book in any order and while that may interest some people I found that some information is repeated in nearly every chapter. Other than that, I found the references to other information in the book, the addition of the author's real sailing experiences in some of these waters and the way the book is organized geographically. The tables and pictures really add to the story being told. I enjoyed learning a bit about sailing, refreshing my geography of the different areas covered and an end to end look at the evolution of how we went from rafts to canoes to open ocean canoes and the different sails and how early navigators we able to sail compared to modern sailing craft today. The facts and figures are easily understood the material presented in an engaging fashion. Good non-fiction that I've been waiting to read for awhile and enjoyed.

Explains how Critical Seafaring was to the Spread of Early Humans

Many Academics want to discount how important boats were were to the peopling of the world. Archaeologists can not find evidence of the boats that took us to Australia and the Americas, so they tend to ignore the fact that it happened. The Dr. Fagan has made a excellent argument that this in fact happened and provides a fascinating explanation of ancient seafaring that is in the historical record. He shows how and why these prehistoric trips could have been done with interesting insight from his own experience as a sailor.