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Sea People: In Search of the Ancient Navigators of the Pacific (Paperback)
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Sea People: In Search of the Ancient Navigators of the Pacific (Paperback)

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£12.99
Paperback 384 Pages
Published: 05/03/2020
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Winner of the 2020 Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Award for nonfiction and the 2019 NSW Premier's History Awards for general history

‘Wonderfully researched and beautifully written’ Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan

‘Succeeds in conjuring a lost world’ Dava Sobel, author of Longitude

For more than a millennium, Polynesians have occupied the remotest islands in the Pacific Ocean, a vast triangle stretching from Hawaii to New Zealand to Easter Island. Until the arrival of European explorers they were the only people to have ever lived there. Both the most closely related and the most widely dispersed people in the world before the era of mass migration, Polynesians can trace their roots to a group of epic voyagers who ventured out into the unknown in one of the greatest adventures in human history.

How did the earliest Polynesians find and colonise these far-flung islands? How did a people without writing or metal tools conquer the largest ocean in the world? This conundrum, which came to be known as the Problem of Polynesian Origins, emerged in the eighteenth century as one of the great geographical mysteries of mankind.

For Christina Thompson, this mystery is personal: her Maori husband and their sons descend directly from these ancient navigators. In Sea People, Thompson explores the fascinating story of these ancestors, as well as those of the many sailors, linguists, archaeologists, folklorists, biologists and geographers who have puzzled over this history for three hundred years. A masterful mix of history, geography, anthropology, and the science of navigation, Sea People is a vivid tour of one of the most captivating regions in the world.

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780008339050
Number of pages: 384
Weight: 340 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 30 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

‘I loved this book. I found Sea People the most intelligent, empathic, engaging, wide-ranging, informative, and authoritative treatment of Polynesian mysteries that I have ever read. Christina Thompson’s gorgeous writing arises from a deep well of research and succeeds in conjuring a lost world’ Dava Sobel, author of Longitude and The Glass Universe ‘To those of the western hemisphere, the Pacific represents a vast unknown, almost beyond our imagining; for its Polynesian island peoples, this fluid, shifting place is home. Christina Thompson’s wonderfully researched and beautifully written narrative brings these two stories together, gloriously and excitingly. Filled with teeming grace and terrible power, her book is a vibrant and revealing new account of the watery part of our world’ Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan ‘A compelling story, beautifully told, the best exploration narrative I’ve read in years’ Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb ‘Fascinating and satisfying’ Simon Winchester, author of The Map that Changed the World ‘Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Polynesia, the Pacific, or the spread of humanity around the globe’ Jack Weatherford, author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World ‘Christina Thompson…is perhaps ideally placed to try to answer the question [of Polynesian origins] – and in Sea People, her fascinating and satisfying addition to an already considerable body of Polynesian literature, she succeeds admirably’ New York Times Book Review ‘Compelling… These pages will unleash the imagination [and] spark insight’ National Geographic ‘Superb. . . . An illuminating read for amateur sleuths and professional scholars alike’ Spectator

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“Absolutely adored this book”

I've been interested in Polynesia ever since (1) the Lord of the Rings films pointed out to me that New Zealand was a place that existed and (2) David Attenborough did his wonderful (though now outdated)... More

Paperback edition
1 similar book recommended
Helpful? Upvote 12

“Excellent book”

An incredibly in-depth, comprehensive and informative book for anyone who has an interest in world history. I've always had an interest in the more obscure side of history, so when this book introduced me to... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 9

“The Amazing Adventures of the Polynesians: Sea People”

This for me was the book of the year 2020, thanks to a mention in the New Statesman. In turn, I’m recommending it to everyone I can.
This is no mere travelogue but a comprehensive attempt to answer some of the... More

Paperback edition
Helpful? Upvote 9

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