The Story of Geographical Discovery: How the World Became Known by Joseph Jacobs | Full Audio Book

The Story of Geographical Discovery: How the World Became Known by Joseph Jacobs (1854 - 1916)
Genre(s): Travel & Geography

Read by: Steven Seitel in English
Cover design by Michele Fry.

Chapters:
00:00:00 - 00 - Preface and Introduction
00:10:31 - 01 - Ch. 1 The World as Known to the Ancients
00:36:47 - 02 - Ch. 2 The Spread of conquest in the Ancient World
00:54:36 - 03 - Ch 3. Geography in the Dark Ages
01:22:58 - 04 - Ch. 4 Medieval Travels
01:43:39 - 05 - Ch. 5 Roads and Commerce
02:02:23 - 06 - Ch. 6 To the Indies Eastward
02:25:45 - 07 - Ch. 7 To the Indies Westward
02:56:59 - 08 - Ch. 8 To the Indies Northward
03:12:54 - 09 - Ch. 9 Partition of America
03:34:53 - 10 - Ch. 10 Australia and the South Seas
03:57:28 - 11 - Ch. 11 Exploration and Partition of Africa
04:24:22 - 12 - Ch. 12 The Poles

This book was first published in 1897. It's a short work, but it encompasses a vast subject—nothing less than determining the detailed geographical plan of our entire world! In the process, Jacobs feeds us dates and names and events and places and maps in a dense stream. It's a bit like drinking from a fire hose, but see it through, and the reader (or listener) will acquire a surprisingly complete overview of world history as well as geography. It's well worth absorbing, even by those not so geographically inclined, if only as a source for winning endless bar bets.

Beginning in ancient times, the author identifies three main forces that have contributed to our present understanding: wars of conquest, competition for trade, and (eventually) pure scientific curiosity. The Egyptians, Phoenicians, early Greeks, Babylonians, and many other Mediterranean peoples contributed, often unwillingly, the streams of knowledge that Ptolemy of Alexandria summed up in the great Ptolemaei Orbis (ca.150 AD), the first 'real' map of the whole known world. The evolution of world maps to incorporate (and sometime conceal) new discoveries is a key theme of this fascinating work. (Summary by Steven Seitel)

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