Patrick

This is an interesting book. The passion for Cook and his achievements clearly shines through. However, certain parts of the book covering some of the more abhorrent interactions between Europeans and various indigenous peoples come across as extremely callous, almost as though they are scientific curiosities rather than people.

Maybe that just reflects the source material, but a bit more acknowledgement from Blainey wouldn't have gone astray.

I also think some of the more sweeping statements in the post-script about western civilisation were probably unnecessary. For mine, Rob Mundle remains the go-to author for Australian maritime history.