Résumé

Captain James Cook is inextricably linked to the South Pacific in the popular imagination, his voyages satisfying our fascination with so-called Polynesian exoticism. But his crowning navigational and scientific achievements took place in the polar regions. "Captain Cook rediscovered" is the first modern study to frame Captain James Cook's career from a North American vantage. Recognizing that Cook sailed more miles in the high latitudes of all of the world's oceans than in the tropical zone, this book gives due attention to his voyages in seas and lands usually neglected, such as South Georgia in the far southern Atlantic and the Alaskan subcontinent, whose dimensions Cook first delineated. David L. Nicandri acknowledges the cartographic accomplishments of the first voyage but focuses on the second- and third-voyage discovery missions in the icy latitudes near the poles, where Cook pioneered the science of iceberg and icepack formation. This ground-breaking book overturns an area of study that has been typically dominated by the "palm-tree paradigm". Nicandri replaces that stereotype with a balanced account of Cook's travels, resulting in a truly modern appraisal of Cook for the climate change era. This fascinating account will appeal not only to students of environmental history, naval history, and polar studies but also to Cook enthusiasts and readers with an interest in exploration history, science, and the North.