This year is the 500th anniversary of Magellan’s expedition, which culminated in Juan Sebastián Elcano becoming the first person to intentionally circumnavigate the planet. Elcano hailed from the small Basque coastal town Getaria, Gipuzkoa, just twenty-five kilometers west of Donostia/San Sebastián. However, Elcano is not the only famous son of Getaria and, in fact, isn’t […]
William A. Douglass, one-time Coordinator of what is now the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno and prolific author on Basque history, is out with a new book on the Basque explorers who navigated the Pacific Ocean, from Elkano (the Basque sailor who took over Magellan’s expedition when Magellan was killed in […]
A historian’s greatest challenge is to convey the excitement and drama of history. This is especially true for more obscure subjects, as the reader doesn’t already come with some emotional attachment. But this is exactly where Christine Bender excels. By using fiction as her vehicle to explore historical events, Christine is able to delve into […]
Having read Laurence Bergreen’s description of Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe, Over the Edge of the World (see this post), I was very interested in Christine Echeverria Bender’s take of the same voyage, Sails of Fortune, partially because I found Bergreen’s account so fascinating, but also because I knew Bender’s would cast a more favorable […]
I originally wrote these thoughts in August of 2005 and thought I’d posted them here, but just realized I hadn’t. In looking back, there are clearly some errors in what I wrote, which I’ve corrected. Over the Edge of the World, by Laurence Bergreen, tells the story of the first voyage around the world, the […]
