Evan T. Jones

John Cabot is a "forgotten" explorer, not talked about much (at least in the U.S.) because his exploration didn't "result" in much. The English didn't follow up and settle Canada and, something I learned here, didn't even really fish the stuff until decades later. Jones and Condon build upon the tragically lost research of Alwyn Ruddock to put Cabot in a fresh light and even suggest he may have (at least shortly) survived his last voyage and returned to England. This goes against hundreds of years of tradition. Good background on Cabot and Bristol, good exposition of his voyages and their impact, good exploration of the possibility of earlier and the fact of later voyages out of Bristol, and a concise takedown of the idea that America was named for Richard ap Meryk. I hope that their research continues and larger works come in the future. Unfortunately this is a hard-to-find book. Well-illustrated, concise, and thoroughly endnoted.… (meer)