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Lead book review

Another fallen idol: the myth of Ferdinand Magellan debunked

Ferdinand Magellan’s fame was largely undeserved. Horatio Clare sees the explorer cut down to size

26 March 2022

9:00 AM

26 March 2022

9:00 AM

Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Bloomsbury, pp.384, 25

Who would you choose to judge you long after your death? How about a professional historian? How about Felipe Fernández-Armesto? Much lauded and read, this professor of history at Notre Dame, Indiana is the author of many books including short histories of humankind and the world and longer ones of exploration, Hispanic America and the year 1492.

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