Expeditions & Discoveries

Meriwether Lewis and his partner, William Clark, endured incredible hardships and witnessed astounding sights on their 1803 cross-country trip to unexplored West....

The River of Doubt brings alive extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived....

April 12, 1961. A young Russian sits inside a tiny capsule on top of the Soviet Union’s most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile - originally designed to carry a nuclear warhead - and blasts into the skies. His name is Yuri Gagarin. And he is about to make history....

The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon....

John Wesley Powell’s first descent of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1869 counts among the most dramatic chapters in American exploration history....

In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain....

New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides returns with a white-knuckle tale of polar exploration and survival in the Gilded Age....

The true survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly awry—with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter....

A thrilling, intellectual detective story that looks deep into the past to uncover who first settled the islands of the remote Pacific, where they came from, how they got there, and how we know....

In 1528, a mission set out from Spain to colonize Florida. But the expedition went horribly wrong. Of the 300 men who had embarked on the journey, only four survived....

The riveting inside story of three heroic astronauts who took on the challenge of mankind's historic first mission to the moon, from the best-selling author of Shadow Divers....

Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City....

In 1519 Magellan and his fleet of five ships set sail from Seville, Spain, to discover a water route to the fabled Spice Islands in Indonesia, where the most sought-after commodities flourished....

Henry Morgan challenged the greatest empire on earth with a ragtag bunch of renegades and brought it to its knees. This is the real story of the pirates of the Caribbean....

Douglas Preston, the #1 bestselling author of The Lost City of the Monkey God, presents this collection of the most jaw-dropping true stories from his career as a journalist and explorer....

Driven by a passion for travel and history and a love of ships and the sea, former Monty Python stalwart and beloved television globe-trotter Michael Palin explores the world of HMS Erebus, last seen on an ill-fated voyage to chart the Northwest Passage....

Pulitzer Prize winner Wallace Stegner recounts the remarkable career of Major John Wesley Powell....

The companion audiobook to Ken Burns's PBS documentary film....

"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"....

Experience the true “great outdoors” through the stories of the men who lived it.....

More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals....

On May 24, 1869 a one-armed Civil War veteran, John Wesley Powell, and a ragtag band of nine mountain men embarked on the last great quest in the American West. The Grand Canyon, not explored before, was as mysterious as Atlantis - and as perilous....

Apollo is the behind-the-scenes story of an epic achievement. Based on exhaustive research that included many exclusive interviews, Apollo tells how America went from a standing start to a landing on the moon at a speed that now seems impossible....

Finding and identifying a pirate ship is the hardest thing to do under the sea. But two men—John Chatterton and John Mattera—are willing to risk everything to find the Golden Fleece, the ship of the infamous pirate Joseph Bannister....

On March 8, 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China....

From the New York Times bestselling author of First Man comes a sweeping saga involving two extraordinary—and extraordinarily different—adventurers who have only one thing in common: the ambition to cross the Atlantic in a rowboat . . . alone. With gripping and insightful prose, James R. Hansen brings to life John Fairfax and Tom McClean's expeditions, from their battle with the elements to their own inner demons. Completely Mad is a nail-biting, epic tale of endurance, and listeners will be gripped until the end to find out who won.

A historical adventure book set in Mexico during the late 19th century. This gripping tale unfolds against the backdrop of Mexico's ancient ruins and vibrant contemporary landscapes. Toltec Whispers takes you on an enthralling journey through the heart of 19th century Mexico, guided by a determined explorer on a quest to unravel one of the murkiest corners of human history. Initially dispatched in 1857 with limited resources, our protagonist returns in 1880, well-prepared with new knowledge, influential supporters, and valuable documents collected over the years. Sworn to illuminate the ...

History of Great Britain Where does the history of a country begin? Or even better, where does the history of a country end? These are debatable questions, outlining that history is an attractive field and a never-ending topic. Basically, it shows the ways in which our society has evolved. In this brief history of Great Britain, you will discover what this country went through to reach its current point. And we hope that you’ll love every minute of it. We will walk you through the history of ancient Britain, Britain after the Roman Conquest, Britain after the Scandinavian invasions and ...

Far from being a land of plenty, the Antarctic continent—if it was that—was no place for human beings. Robert Falcon Scott's 1910 attempt to reach the South Pole is placed in jeopardy when Edward Evans joins as his second-in-command. A clash of personalities between the two men almost prevents the Terra Nova from sailing, but they forge ahead, conscious of competing expeditions racing to the pole. On the treacherous journey across the Antarctic ice, the differences between the scientific-minded Scott and the ambitious Evans become insurmountable.

The archetype of the American explorer, a rugged white man, has dominated our popular culture since the late eighteenth century, when Daniel Boone’s autobiography captivated readers with tales of treacherous journeys. But our commonly held ideas about American exploration do not tell the whole story—far from it. The Explorers rediscovers a diverse group of Americans who went to the western frontier and beyond, traversing the farthest reaches of the globe and even penetrating outer space in their endeavor to find the unknown.

Take an epic journey through the hilarious mistakes and baffling blunders that shaped civilizations. Are you looking to learn unique and surprising facts about human history? Do you want to listen to the quirks and fumbles that defined ancient eras? Did you know that some of the biggest discoveries in history were born out of missteps? More than simple errors, this audiobook about epic failures in ancient history is a testament to humanity’s resilience and people’s ability to learn, adapt, and advance despite the circumstances.

On November 12, 1588, five young Asian men—led by a twenty-one-year-old called Christopher—traveled up the River Thames to meet Queen Elizabeth I. Christopher’s epic sea voyage had spanned from Japan, via the Philippines, New Spain (Mexico), Java and Southern Africa. On the way, he had already become the first recorded Japanese person in North America. Now Christopher was the first ever Japanese visitor to England, and no other would leave such a legacy for centuries to come.

There was a time before time began when humans had 100% use of their brains and nature displayed more splendor and beauty than most living today can possibly imagine. Unfortunately, we have forgotten our past, where we came from, and who we really were. This adventure and love story will take you into this fantasy-type world that existed before recorded history began, into a time where the truth really was stranger than fiction. Take the adventure of a lifetime and travel back to The Time Before Time!

In 1971, two young adventurers strike out on horseback across the mountains and through the jungles of Panama, following the path of Spanish Explorer Vasco Balbo 458 years earlier. Their destination – the Archipélago de las Perlas in search of the “ghost boa.” Danger awaits the pair as they learn that not all that might hurt you can be seen. But, their previous travails were as nothing compared to those that lay ahead on the small, uninhabited island of Saboga. Don’t miss any of William Thacker’s adventures: Otters on a Plane • Orinoco • An Untamed Land • Adventure Road •...

The fifth manned mission of NASA’s Apollo space program, Apollo 11 took the first human beings to the moon and on an adventure that surpassed even the wildest imagination. 600 million people from all over the world watched as astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the celestial body that humanity had looked at for eons from what appeared like an insurmountable distance. An expression of the American spirit which proclaims that nothing is impossible, Apollo 11 was a national goal that took the dedicated work of hundreds of thousands of people. It all started with the Space ...

Raging ambition. Towering egos. Competition under a veneer of courtesy. Heroic effort combined with plagiarism, theft, exaggeration, and fraud. This was the state of bird study in eastern North America during the early 1800s, as a handful of intrepid men raced to find the last few birds that were still unknown to science. The most famous name in the bird world was John James Audubon, who painted spectacular portraits of birds. But although his images were beautiful, creating art was not his main goal. Instead, he aimed to illustrate (and write about) as many different species as possible.

What is a royal family?

From 1792 to 1795, George Vancouver sailed the Pacific as the captain of his own expedition and as an agent of imperial ambition. To map a place is to control it, and Britain had its eyes on America's Pacific coast. And map it Vancouver did. His voyage was one of history's greatest feats of maritime daring, discovery, and diplomacy, and his marine survey of Hawaii and the Pacific coast was at its time the most comprehensive ever undertaken.

The Bible contains but a few verses about the years the Holy Family spent in Egypt - their flight from Herod's death sentence, the weary journey, and their return to Israel after Herod died. But what exactly happened to Jesus and His parents in this ancient land of myth and magic? How did the sojourn in Egypt change Jesus' life and influence His teachings? In search of answers, bestselling author Paul Perry set out to follow the Holy Family's mysterious journey himself. In this fascinating book, Perry tells the story of his own amazing trek into Egypt, and the deeper story of the miracles ...

As a young man growing up in Virginia and Georgia in the late 18th century, Meriwether Lewis displayed the courage that would be so valuable to him later in life. When he was eight or nine years old, a bull charged him. He coolly raised his rifle and shot it dead. A year later, during a nighttime Indian attack on his family, he had the presence of mind to extinguish the campfire so as to hide his party. At eighteen, Lewis was the head of his family’s plantation. Despite such promise, Stephen Ambrose, in "Undaunted Courage," portrays Meriwether Lewis as both a hero and a flawed man. Indeed...