A Voyage Lone and Strange: Historical Analysis Essay & Review

This essay analyzes Tony Horwitz's 'A Voyage Lone and Strange,' a travelogue that explores early American history. The author's journey across the country aims to understand the essence, history, and culture of the land, visiting historical locations where the old and new worlds met. The essay discusses the book's unique perspective, highlighting lesser-known historical accounts, such as the Norsemen's early arrival in America and the experiences of indigenous communities. It delves into the historical background of figures like Christopher Columbus and examines the impact of the past on present-day cultures. The essay also touches on the author's firsthand experiences and concludes that the book offers an interactive and lively approach to understanding history through vivid characters and historical locations, making the past feel present.

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Topic name: A Voyage Lone and Strange
The book A Voyage Lone and Strange is a history travel adventure written by Tony
Horwitz. This particular book was inspired by the idea that the author have little knowledge
about the real history of the land therefore it is necessary to take a voyage across the length and
breadth of the country to get familiarize with her essence, history and culture. The author has
visited various historical locations where the old world came in contact with the new world. The
prologue of the text begins in the Plymouth Rock which is situated in the Massachusetts. The
tourists around, unaware about the great tradition of the land are mainly interested into the scenic
beauty and visible features of the place. It is an irony in one sense. The various points of contact
of the old world and the new world in the various parts of America all constitute of “fascinating
tales, themes, interconnections, ironies, horrors, mundanities and myths”. The travelogue style
of the book is indeed a good way to understand early American history.
The first point of contact that happened between the Americas and the Europe happened
far before the Western or Southern Europeans when the North Europeans or the Norsemen
arrived, however this part of the history is mostly unknown to the common people because they
are mosytly versed with the modern history composed by the Western Europeans which
disregards the achievements of the North Europeans altogether. Therefore the book gives a
whole new perspective and makes the readers aware about the history which is unknown to the
common people. The readers feel to be a part of the travel that the author takes and realizes that
the image about a place which the people have when they do not actually visit the place and then

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the reality which strikes when he or she arrives can be much different. Whether or not a history
is recorded in the history books of a country, the historical places bear a live account of all that
has happened there over time.
Present New Foundland, as the name suggests was the first settlement of the Europeans
in the Northern part of America. Presently a farm settlement and a fishing village the place is
witness to strange and legendary historical accounts and people such as Leif Eiriksson, and
Freydis, whose dark historical accounts still cause disturbance. The aboriginal community in
modern Canada are having attitude of circumspection about what history has done to their
forefathers. These people gave their full effort of getting adapted to the modern circumstances
while holding on to their past saga as much as possible.
The author gets deep into the historical background of Christopher as he goes ahead to
the various location. Information like Columbus’s mediocrity in his academic life and how his
endless enthusiasm about the sea brought him to this new land and made his name famous across
the world. The book takes the reader next to the location of Santo Domingo where the first
Southern European settlement took place in America. The lifestyle of the people in these
locations are imprinted by the historical accounts of the past. It is said that the past is imbibed in
the present in the lifestyle of the people in general. There are cultural remains which are the
remnants of the past, and studying these closely opens up various hidden historical implication in
the particular tradition. However the present people of the same tradition, though carrying the
cultural remnants in their lifestyle but they do not have much time to delve deep into those and
they are more interested in earning and living their daily life.
The accounts of Horwitz are full with vivid characters which narrates history in the
liveliest manner. As if they are the live embodiment of history, historical narratives comes out

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from the limitation of the books and are now presented through the lives of the people. The
author himself goes through various firsthand experiences. Among the Micmac Indians of the
Newfoundland he experienced their sweat lodges and he states “Finally, I stopped struggling and
gave in to the torment, entering a trancelike state, less from heightened consciousness than from
impaired body function. What spirit I had wasn’t raised; it was crushed” (Horwitz). The
Dominican people still hate the French people with great intensity because of the past misdeeds
that was handed out by the Spanish to their people. The investigative nature of historical
research gives the telling a very effective way to understand the unexplored parts of the history
in the most effective way possible.
It can be concluded that the book is a very fine approach to understand history in an
interactive and lively manner. Historical locations are important evidence of millenniums of
history. These are the contact points where the old world interacted with the new world and
which changed much of the course of human history. The book is one of the very effective books
that makes people look into history with a new perspective. It is actually living those times
which will never return.

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Bibliography:
Horwitz, Tony. A voyage long and strange: rediscovering the new world. Macmillan, 2008.