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The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America Its Name Audiobook
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(3.04) - 461 listener ratings
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"Old maps lead you to strange and unexpected places, and none does so more ineluctably than the subject of this book: the giant, beguiling WaldseemUller world map of 1507." So begins this remarkable story of the map that gave America its name. For millennia Europeans believed that the world consisted of three parts: Europe, Africa, and Asia. They drew the three continents in countless shapes and sizes on their maps, but occasionally they hinted at the existence of a "fourth part of the world," a mysterious, inaccessible place, separated from the rest by a vast expanse of ocean. It was a land of myth-until 1507, that is, when Martin WaldseemUller and Matthias Ringmann, two obscure scholars working in the mountains of eastern France, made it real. Columbus had died the year before convinced that he had sailed to Asia, but WaldseemUller and Ringmann, after reading about the Atlantic discoveries of Columbus's contemporary Amerigo Vespucci, came to a startling conclusion: Vespucci had reached the fourth part of the world. To celebrate his achievement, WaldseemUller and Ringmann printed a huge map, for the first time showing the New World surrounded by water and distinct from Asia, and in Vespucci's honor they gave this New World a name: America. The Fourth Part of the World is the story behind that map, a thrilling saga of geographical and intellectual exploration, full of outsize thinkers and voyages. Taking a kaleidoscopic approach, Toby Lester traces the origins of our modern worldview. His narrative sweeps across continents and centuries, zeroing in on different portions of the map to reveal strands of ancient legend, Biblical prophecy, classical learning, medieval exploration, imperial ambitions, and more. In Lester's telling the map comes alive: Marco Polo and the early Christian missionaries trek across Central Asia and China; Europe's early humanists travel to monastic libraries to recover ancient texts; Portuguese merchants round up the first West African slaves; Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci make their epic voyages of discovery; and finally, vitally, Nicholas Copernicus makes an appearance, deducing from the new geography shown on the WaldseemUller map that the earth could not lie at the center of the cosmos. The map literally altered humanity's worldview. One thousand copies of the map were printed, yet only one remains. Discovered accidentally in 1901 in the library of a German castle it was bought in 2003 for the unprecedented sum of $10 million by the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public display. Lavishly illustrated with rare maps and diagrams, The Fourth Part of the World is the story of that map: the dazzling story of the geographical and intellectual journeys that have helped us decipher our world.
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"I enjoyed this book. It tells history in a pleasant-to-read way. The only shortcoming is that it became too long. The map that gave America its name was the Waldseemuller (with an umlaut over the o) map that was published 1520-ish. The author could have stopped the narrative, there. This book provoked me to read "The Travels of Sir John Mandeville" and led me to reassess the value of the world map we use today. It has other things for other readers. Enjoy!"
— Bob (4 out of 5 stars)
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“Marvelously imaginative, exhaustively researched…Guiding the reader Virgil-like through the Age of Discovery, Lester introduces a chronologically and conceptually vast array of Great Men (Columbus, Vespucci, Polo, Copernicus, et al.), competing theories, monastic sages, forgotten poets, opportunistic merchants, unfortunate slaves, and more. That he relates it all so cleanly and cogently—via elegant prose, relaxed erudition, measured pacing, and purposeful architecture—is a feat.”
— Atlantic -
“An intellectual detective story. By using the [Waldseemüller] map as a lens through which to view a nexus of myth, imagination, technology, stupidity, and imperial ambition, Lester has penned a provocative, disarming testament to human ambition and ingenuity.”
— Boston Globe -
“With the excitement and exhilaration of an explorer, Atlantic contributor Lester sets off on his own journey of discovery across the seas of cartography and history…Lester traces the map’s journey to America over the next century in a majestic tribute to a historic work.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
“An omnivorous view of world history, geography, and discovery, The Fourth Part of the World introduces a diverse cast of characters: explorers, missionaries, rulers, mariners, merchants, scholars, poets, geographers, and mapmakers. The fitting conclusion of Lester’s epic journey through history is the tale of the map itself: a record of the past, a commentary on the present, and a dream of the future in a new understanding of the world.”
— Barnes & Noble
Awards
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Selected for the November 2009 Indie Next List
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Finalist for a Barnes & Noble Discover Award in 2010
The Fourth Part of the World Listener Reviews
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" Excellent, but long and dense and therefore, best read by Engineering and Cartography or History Geeks. I fit that charactrization so I enjoyed it. I recommended it to my boss and he didn't like it, but I heard him a week later talking to others about facts and interesting items he read in it. "
— Lana, 2/6/2014 -
" I loved this book. I'm not a big non fiction reader. This book was fascinating from the beginning. Ancient maps, how they were created, how America got it's name. It's all in here. "
— Liz, 2/4/2014 -
" This is a deep and at times laborious book. I find it fascinating the level of scholarship that existed in the "dark ages". It's a thorough description of the early exploration around the world and the map making and documentation that was created and used as a result. "
— Alan, 11/26/2013 -
" Ultimately, I think there's only so much I can be made to care about maps. "
— Jonathan, 11/16/2013 -
" The scope of this book was a lot broader than I expected. I thought it was going to be more about a specific map, but the story of the Waldseemuller map was really just a bookend to a pretty full history of cartography and exploration. Well researched and in-depth, possibly a little more so than I was looking for. "
— Turi, 8/7/2013 -
" Fascinating description of the development of geography/cosmography as it was then known, including how people of middle ages viewed the earth, the purpose of maps, and how the information from the age of discovery as well as ideas of latitude and longitude and mariner's maps was gradually incorporated into maps. Includes several nice illustrations of early maps. "
— Yvonne, 8/7/2013 -
" wonderful book, if you like to go back in history and challenge your assumptions! "
— Pat, 7/10/2013 -
" A surprisingly fascinating book on mapmakers and explorers and how the world was slowly pieced together. Had to read it with a world map next to me. "
— Karen, 7/1/2013 -
" "A great read for those who like history, biography. Dispelled a lot of 'flat-earth' myths that I believed. "
— Rps2, 4/10/2013 -
" It's a little slow in parts, but overall a good read with some fascinating maps. I was especially interested for how many years Europeans believed in the Dragon Tail, a fictional peninsula in Southeast Asia. "
— Alisalias, 12/5/2012 -
" A good read. I know a lot more about the development of geographical knowledge in the West than I did before. It is filled with interesting vignettes. "
— bibliotekker, 10/28/2012 -
" If you enjoy US History and geography, it's a great read. "
— Gray, 4/22/2012 -
" Aug 3,1492 Columbus first voyage. 3rd voyage May 30 1498 "
— Earl, 12/30/2011 -
" Interesting concept, a little bogged down in the middle...would love to read a book about the same subject written from an eastern perspective. "
— Camzcam, 12/2/2011 -
" If you love maps, you'll love this non-fiction sleuth about the origins of a famous map... "
— Brent, 11/5/2011 -
" For some reason, I really liked this book. Got me into non-fiction. Really informative and interesting; and it gives you an appreciation for some of the fucked up political nature of North America today. "
— Patrick, 10/17/2011 -
" For some reason, I really liked this book. Got me into non-fiction. Really informative and interesting; and it gives you an appreciation for some of the fucked up political nature of North America today. "
— Patrick, 2/9/2011 -
" A centuries long look at the changing understanding of the world and the expanding exploration that resulted, explained through an examination of the maps that have survived to today. "
— Chris, 1/28/2011 -
" I loved this book. I loved the interdisciplinary aspects of the history. I loved the deeply digging scholarship that went into both the history and the actual book itself. I'm grateful to the author for<br/>pulling all this together. "
— Arlen, 1/24/2011 -
" If you love maps, you'll love this non-fiction sleuth about the origins of a famous map... "
— Brent, 12/15/2010 -
" Aug 3,1492 Columbus first voyage. 3rd voyage May 30 1498 "
— Earl, 9/12/2010 -
" Interesting and well written story of the filling in of the global map from ptolemy to naming of America, the real story behind that name, and medieval geography. Deep and occasionally dense, but well worth it! "
— Mike, 9/8/2010 -
" "A great read for those who like history, biography. Dispelled a lot of 'flat-earth' myths that I believed. "
— Rps2, 8/26/2010 -
" A bit of a slog to begin with, but some interesting stories about how America got the name America and the role of maps during the middle ages, through the re-discovery of the Americas. <br/> <br/> "
— Eric, 8/17/2010
About Toby Lester
Toby Lester is the author of The Fourth Part of the World and a
contributing editor to The Atlantic.
A former Peace Corps volunteer and United Nations observer, he lives in the
Boston area with his wife and three daughters. His work has also appeared on
the radio program This American Life.
About Peter Jay Fernandez
Peter Jay Fernandez is an accomplished audiobook narrator who has won three AudioFile Earphones Awards and an Audie Award in 2009. He has also appeared on television, film, and stage. His appearances include roles in Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and the musical Thunder Knocking on the Door.