Expeditions & Discoveries

In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice

This is the true story of the real Colonel Fawcett, whose life was the inspiration for the best-selling book The Lost City of Z and an upcoming movie starring Brad Pitt....

Meriwether Lewis and his partner, William Clark, endured incredible hardships and witnessed astounding sights on their 1803 cross-country trip to unexplored West....

The River of Doubt brings alive extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived....

The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon....

A sweeping, authoritative history of 16th-century Spain and its legendary conquistadors, whose ambitious and morally contradictory campaigns propelled a small European kingdom to become one of the formidable empires in the world....

Driven by a passion for travel and history and a love of ships and the sea, former Monty Python stalwart and beloved television globe-trotter Michael Palin explores the world of HMS Erebus, last seen on an ill-fated voyage to chart the Northwest Passage....

Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City....

New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides returns with a white-knuckle tale of polar exploration and survival in the Gilded Age....

The name Captain James Cook is one of the most recognisable in Australian history - an almost mythic figure who is often discussed, celebrated, reviled and debated....

In 1519 Magellan and his fleet of five ships set sail from Seville, Spain, to discover a water route to the fabled Spice Islands in Indonesia, where the most sought-after commodities flourished....

Inspired by Wondery’s hit podcast Against the Odds—learn how to survive whatever nature can throw at you through gut-twisting true stories of survival on the brink.

More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals....

The true survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly awry—with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter....

On May 24, 1869 a one-armed Civil War veteran, John Wesley Powell, and a ragtag band of nine mountain men embarked on the last great quest in the American West. The Grand Canyon, not explored before, was as mysterious as Atlantis - and as perilous....

In the best-selling tradition of Bill Bryson and Tony Horwitz, Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail is a major work of participatory history....

Overturn everything you knew about history’s greatest minds in this raucous and hilarious book, where it turns out there's a finer line between "genius" and "idiot" than we've previously known....

In 1528, a mission set out from Spain to colonize Florida. But the expedition went horribly wrong. Of the 300 men who had embarked on the journey, only four survived....

National Outdoor Book Award-winning author Buddy Levy's presents a thrilling narrative of polar exploration via airship―and the men who sacrificed everything to make history.

Douglas Preston, the #1 bestselling author of The Lost City of the Monkey God, presents this collection of the most jaw-dropping true stories from his career as a journalist and explorer....

They came on foot and by horseback, in wagons and on rafts, singly and by the score, restless, adventurous, enterprising, relentless, seeking a foothold on the future. European immigrants and American colonists, settlers and speculators, soldiers and missionaries, fugitives from justice....

In 1810, John Jacob Astor sent out two advance parties to settle the wild, unclaimed western coast of North America....

The story begins in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland....

The year is 1680, in the heart of the Golden Age of Piracy, and more than 300 daring, hardened pirates—a potent mix of low-life scallywags and a rare breed of gentlemen buccaneers—gather on a remote Caribbean island....

"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"....

How to Survive Against the Odds places you at the center of fifteen real life-or-death scenarios. Each story explores the physiological responses of the human body under unbearable conditions, how to counteract them, and strategies for survival from doctors and psychologists. Through these tales, we see the grit, willpower, and know-how needed to navigate out of a host of merciless situations.

For as long as people have traveled to distant lands, they have brought home objects to certify the journey. More than mere merchandise, these travel souvenirs take on a personal and cultural meaning that goes beyond the object itself. Drawing on several millennia of examples—from the relic-driven quests of early Christians, to the mass-produced tchotchkes that line the shelves of a Disney gift shop—travel writer Rolf Potts delves into a complicated history that explores issues of authenticity, cultural obligation, market forces, human suffering, and self-presentation.

Alternate Worlds That Might Have Been and the Lessons They Hold What if Napoleon had won at Waterloo? What if the atomic bomb was never dropped? What if the Berlin Wall never fell? History is shaped not only by what happened — but also by what could have happened. In History’s Greatest What-Ifs, explore ten of the most fascinating alternate scenarios from real-world history. Through vivid storytelling and sharp analysis, this book dives into key moments where history could have taken a dramatically different turn — and examines what that means for our world today. You’ll discover: ...

Reaching the top of the world in 1953 was one of the most significant achievements in the history of human endurance.

20 UNsung Inventions Brilliant Breakthroughs That Silently Shaped the World Discover the incredible stories behind the quiet inventions that made modern life possible. We often celebrate the flashy, the famous, and the headline-grabbing breakthroughs. But what about the zipper? The shipping container? The ball bearing? What about the inventions that didn’t make the front page—but changed everything anyway? In this fascinating journey through 20 underappreciated innovations, you'll uncover how simple, practical ideas became the backbone of our global society. From laboratory flasks to ...