Review by Booklist Review
The latest in the Fifty series, focused on ships, joins other similar titles covering topics ranging from plants and animals to machines and from trains to food and sports. Like the others in the series, this book presents four-to-six-page profiles of ships that represent historic developments in transportation, warfare, exploration, and comfort. The ships are presented in historical order, from 2566 BCE to 2009 CE. Familiar names, such as Santa Maria, Mayflower, Beagle, Titanic, and Enterprise, are all included, along with those of lesser-known ships, such as Isis, Sirius, Rattler, and Ideal X. Each entry provides the ship's history and technical design but concentrates primarily on its historical significance. Well researched and illustrated, this reference-y title will be a good addition to any collection covering seafaring and transport.--Tyckoson, David Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Graham (Scarlet Women), a prolific author of science, technology, and history books, takes the readers on a nautical voyage around the world and through time as he profiles 50 historically important ships. From an ancient Egyptian barge belonging to the Pharaoh Khufu to the modern MS Allure of the Seas, the largest passenger ship ever built, this book is full of record setters and history makers. Others include the Amistad, significant for having been taken over by slaves; the HMS Endeavour, the collier used by Capt. James Cook to sail around the world; and the Yamato, the largest battleship of World War II and the one that marked the end of big-battleship navies. This is a beautiful book, replete with illustrations, photos, diagrams, and maps. The text balances technicality with storytelling, scholarly analysis with entertainment. It's a sweeping, fascinating look at barges, battleships, caravels, dhows, submarines, and more, placing them all in context with the battles, countries, discoveries, inventions, and people that surrounded them. Readers interested in history of any kind will enjoy this highly accessible book. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
Boats and their larger cousins, ships, have aided humans in obtaining food, exploring, waging war, trading, and luxurious pleasure cruising. Prolific author Graham (Encyclopedia of Transportation) boils down thousands of years of adaptation and innovation as seagoing vessels evolved from wooden constructions powered by oars to metal hulls with nuclear power. Illustrations, cutaway drawings, maps, and photos, along with frequent sidebars on the likes of scurvy and infamous oil spills, make for fascinating entries, arranged chronologically. From the three-tiered Greek and Phoenician triremes and the 1800s Amistad to Cousteau's Calypso and Oasis-class cruise ships, engrossing facts and well-told history fill this easily portable volume. VERDICT A worthy addition to the "Fifty Things That Changed the Course of History" series, suitable for landlubbers and sea dogs, middle grade and up.
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