"Sparkling…an extraordinary true-adventure story, complete with trials, tribulations and moments of exultation." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review Award-winning cultural historian Iain McCalman tells the stories of Charles Darwin and his staunchest supporters: Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley, and Alfred Wallace. Beginning with the somber morning of April 26, 1882—the day of Darwin's funeral—Darwin's Armada steps back and recounts the lives and scientific discoveries of each of these explorers, who campaigned passionately in the war of ideas over evolution and advanced the scope of Darwin's work.

With the disappearance of the imperial structures that had dominated Southeast Asia, newly independent states had to develop foreign policies of their own. But so far few if any of these states have been willing to allow the public to explore any documentation of their activities. Building on his earlier work that drew on U.K. records, the author incorporates material from New Zealand archives -- which also contain reports from Australian and Canadian diplomats -- to provide a historical analysis of the foreign policies of Southeast Asian nations from a New Zealand perspective.

Sir James Brooke was an extraordinary 'eminent' Victorian, whose life was the stuff of legend.His curious career began in 1841 when he was caught up in a war in Brunei which had started because a party of local Dayaks had refused to furl their umbrellas in the presence of the Sultan. Brooke was an opportunist who, with the Sultan's backing, made war on the Dayaks tribespeople and eventually found himself ruling over Sarawak - a kingdom the size of England - as a result. How he achieved it is a romantic, sometimes horrifying story. Brooke is someone that George Macdonald Fraser would scarcely dare to invent. Errol Flynn wanted to play him in a movie, seventy years after his death and his dynasty is remembered throughout South-East Asia.

"In 1878 a German named Overbeck and an Englishman named Dent travelled to North Borneo (now Sabah), announced to the locals that their ruler, the Sultan of Brunei, had sold all trade rights in the region, and left a young man named William Pryer to 'establish' the British North Borneo Company there. In 1894 Ada Pryer, who had married William in 1883, published her account of his early years as an administrator, along with some sketches of their life together. The result is a lively, vivid and compelling narrative." "The only book aimed at presenting North Borneo appealingly to British audiences, and thus capturing their political support for the British commercial presence there, Ada's little book functioned as a kind of immigration manual about a land where snakes were scarce and moonlight was plentiful. The memoir has value both as a travel narrative in its own right and for understanding the international politics of the British takeover of North Borneo." "This new edition reproduces the text of the original 1894 edition, and includes an introductory essay as well as annotations to explain and contextualize references of historical and biographical significance."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved