Felipe Fernández-Armesto is one of the world's greatest historians, especially in the era of the "Great Discoveries." His books on Columbus and Vespucci are standards, and this one on Magellan will be one too. It rests in deep and wide archival research and tackles several historiographical disputes about Magellan's origins, motives, and life. It is no hagiography. After reading his books on Columbus and Vespucci you get the idea that Fernández-Armesto gives them a grudging respect. Not so here. To Fernández-Armesto, Magellan was a hack, a monomaniac, and a poor leader of men. He was a turncoat to his birth nation (Portugal), disobeyed orders from his new sovereign (Carlos V of Spain), and a poor leader of men (inspiring multiple mutinies). His voyage discovered a terrible strait to the Pacific, found a useless way across the wide Pacific that found no islands and got almost everybody killed, did not get to the Spice Islands that were his stated goal, and messing things up so bad in the islands he did find (Guam and the Philippines) that he got himself killed—and, it wasn't on Spain's side of the line anyway. For Fernández-Armesto, he was no hero. He didn't even circumnavigate the globe. All the hero-worship that later accrued to his name is odd and misplaced.

Fernández-Armesto offers copious endnotes, some with discursive text. A great work of history. Two things knock it down one half star. First, the images are near to worthless. They are well-chosen, as you would expect from Fernández-Armesto. But, they are all reduced to the size of one book page, in portrait orientation, and in black-and-white. This makes them grainy, tiny, and near to worthless. The editors let him down here. A nice set of color plates would have been good for this book. Second, more than I recall in his other works, Fernández-Armesto makes modern analogies and jokey asides in the text that I found rather off-putting. Still, it must now rank as the best biography of Magellan available, and it will be for some time. ( )

From Ferdinand Magellan and Sir Francis Drake to lesser-known scientific explorers and even an unknown mariner, a batch of new nonfiction works share previously overlooked stories set during the age of discovery. These titles expand our thinking about the people and missions that jumpstarted maritime travel and commerce.

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Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Mar 2022, University of California Press
Themes: World history, Maritime history, Expeditions, Age of Discovery

STRAITS revisits the life of Ferdinand Magellan separating the fact from fiction through surviving primary sources while providing useful insights and context.
Take-aways: Historically, textbooks have glossed over the life of Magellan and portrayed him as the hero of the age of discovery. This work is effective in providing a more realistic and comprehensive examination of this historical figure. ( )