Voices across the centuries are heard again, describing the Holy Land.
Wide-ranging examination of Western visitors to the Holy Land since the Crusades.
German author Brunner (Extreme North: A Cultural History, 2022) dives into a rather neglected area of historical study: visits to the Holy Land by residents of Europe and North America. Such travel, whether conducted for the sake of religious pilgrimage, cultural curiosity, or trade and diplomacy, is widely acknowledged but rarely studied for its own sake. He draws on numerous primary sources, many of which are published or translated here for the first time. He begins with travelers from the Middle Ages up until roughly the age of Napoleon, a panoply of fascinating personalities ranging from a 12th-century visitor from Iceland to the mystic Margery Kempe. Traveler Francis of Assisi would go on to cast a long shadow, as Franciscan monks would become longtime caretakers and gatekeepers for the Christian holy sites of Palestine. Moving on to the 19th century, the author describes a lengthy list of travelers who came to explore, worship, or evangelize. Many would encounter doubt, many would cause disruption, and many would die through the harsh realities of travel in the Levant. Through their eyes, Brunner paints a picture of a region rich in diversity yet always in tension. “The relatively peaceful coexistence of the different religious and ethnic groups in the Ottoman Empire over long periods of time,” he notes, “was based on clear boundaries, which formed the basis for mutual respect.” Western visitors often ignored, misunderstood, or blatantly challenged these boundaries, adding to conflicts that remain to this day. Overall, Brunner provides facts and leaves analysis to the reader. Nevertheless, his array of primary sources, along with his accessible approach, allow the reader to do just that.
Voices across the centuries are heard again, describing the Holy Land.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780691295589
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.
A harrowing expedition to Antarctica, recounted by Departures senior features editor Sancton, who has reported from every continent on the planet.
On Aug. 16, 1897, the steam whaler Belgica set off from Belgium with young Adrien de Gerlache as commandant. Thus begins Sancton’s riveting history of exploration, ingenuity, and survival. The commandant’s inexperienced, often unruly crew, half non-Belgian, included scientists, a rookie engineer, and first mate Roald Amundsen, who would later become a celebrated polar explorer. After loading a half ton of explosive tonite, the ship set sail with 23 crew members and two cats. In Rio de Janeiro, they were joined by Dr. Frederick Cook, a young, shameless huckster who had accompanied Robert Peary as a surgeon and ethnologist on an expedition to northern Greenland. In Punta Arenas, four seamen were removed for insubordination, and rats snuck onboard. In Tierra del Fuego, the ship ran aground for a while. Sancton evokes a calm anxiety as he chronicles the ship’s journey south. On Jan. 19, 1898, near the South Shetland Islands, the crew spotted the first icebergs. Rough waves swept someone overboard. Days later, they saw Antarctica in the distance. Glory was “finally within reach.” The author describes the discovery and naming of new lands and the work of the scientists gathering specimens. The ship continued through a perilous, ice-littered sea, as the commandant was anxious to reach a record-setting latitude. On March 6, the Belgica became icebound. The crew did everything they could to prepare for a dark, below-freezing winter, but they were wracked with despair, suffering headaches, insomnia, dizziness, and later, madness—all vividly capture by Sancton. The sun returned on July 22, and by March 1899, they were able to escape the ice. With a cast of intriguing characters and drama galore, this history reads like fiction and will thrill fans of Endurance and In the Kingdom of Ice.
A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984824-33-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A valuable contribution to our understanding of one of history’s most vital figures.
An epistolary memoir of Nelson Mandela’s prison years.
From August 1962 to February 1990, Mandela (1918-2013) was imprisoned by the apartheid state of South Africa. During his more than 27 years in prison, the bulk of which he served on the notorious Robben Island prison off the shores of Cape Town, he wrote thousands of letters to family and friends, lawyers and fellow African National Congress members, prison officials, and members of the government. Heavily censored for both content and length, letters from Robben Island and South Africa’s other political prisons did not always reach their intended targets; when they did, the censorship could make them virtually unintelligible. To assemble this vitally important collection, Venter (A Free Mind: Ahmed Kathrada's Notebook from Robben Island, 2006, etc.), a longtime Johannesburg-based editor and journalist, pored through these letters in various public and private archives across South Africa and beyond as well as Mandela’s own notebooks, in which he transcribed versions of these letters. The result is a necessary, intimate portrait of the great leader. The man who emerges is warm and intelligent and a savvy, persuasive, and strategic thinker. During his life, Mandela was a loving husband and father, a devotee of the ANC’s struggle, and capable of interacting with prominent statesmen and the ANC’s rank and file. He was not above flattery or hard-nosed steeliness toward his captors as suited his needs, and he was always yearning for freedom, not only—or even primarily—for himself, but rather for his people, a goal that is the constant theme of this collection and was the consuming vision of his entire time as a prisoner. Venter adds tremendous value with his annotations and introductions to the work as a whole and to the book’s various sections.
A valuable contribution to our understanding of one of history’s most vital figures.Pub Date: July 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63149-117-7
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
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