The Last Crusade

The Epic Voyages of Vasco da Gama

By: Nigel Cliff

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

Historian Nigel Cliff delivers a sweeping, radical reinterpretation of Vasco da Gama's pioneering voyages, revealing their significance as a decisive turning point in the struggle between Christianity and Islam - a series of events which forever altered the relationship between East and West. Perfect for fans of Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, Galileo's Daughter, and Atlantic, this first-ever complete account of da Gama's voyages includes new information from the recently discovered diaries of his sailors and an extraordinary series of letters between da Gama and the Zamorin, a king of modern-day Kerala, India.

Cliff, the author of The Shakespeare Riots, draws upon his own travels in da Gama's footsteps to add detail, authenticity, and a contemporary perspective to this riveting, one-of-a-kind historical epic.

©2011 Nigel Cliff (P)2020 Tantor

An Amazing work filling in forgotten history

I am a pretty well read person and although I knew of Vasco De Gama and the Portuguese “explorers” along Africa’s coasts all the way to Japan, this book gave the background, drama, personalities, and the tragedies of that history.
The audacity, greed, and seamanship of the Portuguese vs the long established Arab/Indian/African trading monopolies was a drama I could not stop listening to, even after Cross cultural blunders, mass murder, and hypocrisy piled up.
I am not sure a Muslim historian of the period would write as self-critical a work as this, but that makes it all the more a Christian project to testify to the non-Christ like behaviors of our “Christian” forebears. The author seems to tip toe around Muslim “crimes” from the period and focus on the wicked Portuguese, Spanish, and Venitians a bit too much for my taste, but given that it was written at the height of the post- 9/11 “war on terror” with the failed “nation building” in Iraq and Afghanistan, I can give him a pass on the self-flagellation.
Learned a TON, have greater empathy for Muslim nations who fear all Western interventions, and see a bit more how we got here.

a library must have

Excellent book. A complete history, not only of Vasco de Gama, but of Portuguese history in Africa and India. Don't stop before reading the epilogue. This book is an important piece to my world history collection.

Very well narrated. Humanistic approach to the excesses of religious colonization.

Insightful chronological perspective and historical background that makes one understand the motives and errors of the explores and their religious and commercially ambitious drive.

Exploration through lens of crusades

Great history of the period. Not really a biography of Da Gama, but interesting and easy to follow.

Good.

I was looking for a story about the Portuguese, and specifically Vasco de Gama. I agree with a prior reviewer that is definitely slanted away from the Christians and written in more of a New World order approach. It still was interesting, although a bit dry. Very factual. But with the definite slant on the facts.Not sure I wholly recommend it.

Way too PC

Lots of details of the violence of the Portuguese but nothing mentioned about the massive slave trade of Islam in the world. I can’t say I would pay for this one sided distortion.