James Fairhead is professor of social anthropology at the University of Sussex. He is the author of four previous books, including the prize-winning Misreading the African Landscape: Society and Ecology in a Forest-Savanna Mosaic. He lives in East Sussex, UK.
“Here is a grand global seafaring epic, narrated by James Fairhead
with vivid drama and literary flair.”—Marcus Rediker, author of The
Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom
*Marcus Rediker*
“An extraordinary work! Combining the analytical skills of a social
anthropologist with the investigative techniques of a narrative
historian, Fairhead reconstructs the travels of a young Pacific
Islander and his American captor and benefactor across seven seas
and six continents. Telling the story from the point of view of
both the islander and the captain, Fairhead investigates the
cultural fictions, economic interests, and global networks that
animated the nineteenth-century world.”—Robert Harms, author of The
Diligent: A Voyage through the Worlds of the Slave Trade
*Robert Harms*
“By reconstructing the fascinating story of how Dako, a prince from
the island of Uneapa, near New Guinea, came to appear on the New
York stage in the early 1830s, James Fairhead brilliantly
illuminates the cultural and often tragic encounters of
profit-seeking Yankees with worlds other than the Atlantic and
Native American. Deeply researched and elegantly written, this is
historical anthropology and narrative history at their most
enlightening and compelling.”—David Richardson, co-author of Atlas
of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
*David Richardson*
“James Fairhead has rendered an oceanic story driven by characters,
dreams, self-deception, wide-flung locales, familiar places made
strange, and motivations of wonder, cupidity, greed, arrogance, and
overweening pride. This is a brave, remarkable work.”—Matt K.
Matsuda, author of Pacific Worlds: A History of Seas, Peoples, and
Cultures
*Matt K. Matsuda*
“[A] superb new cultural history masquerading as an adventure tale
. . . A fascinating glimpse into the sometimes ruthless
Realeconomik of the early 19th century, which Fairhead delivers
with great storytelling flair.”—Washington Post
*Washington Post*
“Illuminates the social, racial, and cultural tensions of expanding
global commerce. Readers of American history and social history
will enjoy this work.”—Library Journal
*Library Journal*
"Fairhead . . . has created what is both a gripping drama and a
perceptive analysis of the experiences of both colonials and
colonizers . . . This book, once opened, will keep you up late
until the last page has been turned."—Natural History
*Natural History*
‘The joy of Fairhead’s excellent book lies in its wonderful detail…
Teasing truth out of fiction Fairhead provides us with a tale as
remarkable for what it says about ‘’us’’ as it does about
‘’them’’.’—Philip Hoare, Literary Review.
*Literary Review*
"The real adventurer of our time may be someone like Fairhead, a
visionary detective who has dug into records that were crumbling,
dusty, and lost from view, and used them to recreate a story that
is as amazing now as it must have been to the people who lived
it."—Santa Fe New Mexican
*Santa Fe New Mexican*
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