Many have told the story of Sir Robert Scott's dramatic and, ultimately, tragic race to the South Pole. But in The Last Great Quest, Max Jones adds a new dimension to the story by probing the nature of heroism in modern Britain as reflected in the strengths and weaknesses of Scott himself. In particular, he charts the cultural reverberations of Scott's death and sacrifice on the eve of the greatest slaughter in British history--the First World War. A dramatic opening leads to a compelling examination of the British traditions of exploration, the scientific ambitions of the expedition, the "race to the South Pole," and the disaster itself. Jones argues that Scott's death was a pivotal moment in British history, and central to this is his extraordinary journal--the ultimate expression of self-control and heroism in the face of death--which was immensely popular in the years before the war. This important and challenging interpretation of Scott's life and death re-evaluates the man and his sacrifice. Indeed, Jones shows that the story of Scott of the Antarctic is a key to understanding modern British history, connecting Scott with Dr. Livingstone, the Titanic disaster, and the ascent of Everest. In particular, Scott's story helps us to fathom the generation who fought and died in the Great War. The most important new contribution to our knowledge of this compelling story in nearly 25 years, and the first account that sets the story in a wider historical context, The Last Great Quest brims with original conclusions that are based on previously unavailable evidence.

The Last Great Quest: Captain Scott's Antarctic Sacrifice

Biographies & Memoirs

Jones, Max

Historical

Oxford University Press

Scott's last Antarctic expedition is one of the great adventure stories of the twentieth century. On 1 November 1911, a British team set out on the gruelling 800-mile journey across the coldest and highest continent on Earth to travel to the South Pole. Five men battled through unimaginably harsh conditions only to find the Norwegian flag had been planted at the Pole just weeks before. Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Lieutenant Henry Bowers, Petty Officer Edgar Evans, Captain Lawrence Oates, and Dr. Edward Wilson all died on the return trek, starved and frozen to death, only eleven miles from a supply camp. In November 1912, a rescue party discovered their last letters and diaries, which told a story of bravery, hardship, and self-sacrifice that shocked the world. Recent decades have seen controversy rage over whether Scott was the last of a line of great Victorian explorers, intent on discovering uncharted lands, or a hopeless incompetent driven by personal ambition. Rejecting the stereotypes, Max Jones reveals a complex figure, a product of the passions and preoccupations of an imperial age. He also shows how heroes are made and manipulated, through a close examination of the unprecedented outpouring of public grief at the news of the death of Scott and his companions. Max Jones uses fascinating new evidence and prevously unseen illustrations to take us back to this remarkable moment in modern history, and tells for the first time the full story of The Last Great Quest.

Last Great Quest

History

Oxford University Press M.D.

As trumpet player and singer, Louis Armstrong is the single most important figure in jazz history, and one of the most influential musicians--in any category--in this century. He was also, as this book relates, a wonderful character: actor, clown, raconteur, a tough kid when he came to Chicago from New Orleans who mellowed into one of the music's true statesmen. This biography includes not only a gripping narrative written by two of the most reliable jazz historians, but also a chronology, film list, and selection of photos. He was the most beloved of jazz musicians, a hero to everyone from Eddie Condon and Bobby Hackett to Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman. His basically happy life is here memorably told, with a new preface by Dan Morgenstern who describes Armstrong's central place in world music.

Louis: The Louis Armstrong Story, 1900-1971 (Da Capo Paperback)

CHILTON, John

Humor & Entertainment

Da Capo Press

"Up from the Cradle of Jazz" is an intimate history of New Orleans music during the last 45 years. It describes the piano playing of Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, James Booker, Huey "Piano" Smith and Dr John; the singing of Irma Thomas, Little Richard, Aaron Neville and Lee Dorsey; the compositions and performances of Allen Toussaint, Guitar Slim, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, The Meters and The Neville Brothers. From smoky bars and nightclubs to the open air revelry of Mardi Gras, this work aims to be the definitive story of the music of contemporary New Orleans. Jason Berry is the author of "Amazing Grace: with Charles Evers in Mississippi"; Jonathan Foose, a musician and producer, co-produced, with Berry, the television documentary of the same title as this book, and Tad Jones is a researcher at Tulane University.

Up From The Cradle Of Jazz

Arts & Photography

Berry, Jason

JONATHAN

Foose, Tad

Music

Max Jones, known affectionately as "the Boswell of bebop" (Time Out), was famed in England for nearly four decades of insightful, ardent writing on jazz. With this luminous collection of interviews, his work will at last be widely accessible to American readers. Here are the voices of jazz—Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Billie Holiday, and Mary Lou Williams, to name but a few—in conversation with Jones, who could turn a casual chat into an indelible portrait and who gives American readers a view of these musicians they have never had before.

Jazz Talking: Profiles, Interviews, And Other Riffs On Jazz Musicians

DANCE, Stanley

Arts & Literature

Talking Jazz (Macmillan Popular Music Series)

Pan/Macmillan

Gathers interviews with noted jazz musicians of the past forty years including Stan Getz, Billie Holiday, Buck Clayton, Sarah Vaughan, and Billy Eckstine

Talking Jazz

Performing Arts

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Louis: The Louis Armstrong story, 1900-1971

Community & Culture

Mayflower

Strength Training

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Tafnews Pr

Man Called Possum

John Curley & Assoc

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