The Wide Wide Sea

In The Wide Wide Sea, Hampton Sides presents exploration not as a triumphant march of progress but as a dangerous, often ambiguous pursuit shaped by wonder, misjudgment, and human limitation. While Cook’s voyage spans vast stretches of the globe—from the icy waters off Siberia to the volcanic cliffs of Hawai‘i—Sides returns again and again to the question of how much it costs to push beyond what is known. For Cook and his crew…

Hampton Sides frames Captain James Cook’s final voyage as both a scientific mission and a quiet extension of British imperial ambition. While Cook and his crew pursue maps, observations, and cultural knowledge, their journey repeatedly serves the broader goals of empire—claiming territory, establishing influence, and gathering strategic knowledge under the guise of exploration. From the beginning, Cook sails not just to chart new lands but to find the fabled Northwest Passage—a route that…

The Wide Wide Sea shows that historical legacy depends less on what happened than on who controls the story. Sides demonstrates how explorers like Captain Cook and figures like Mai enter the historical record not through neutral fact, but through writing, retelling, and selective remembrance. Some voices dominate because they left behind volumes of text. Others disappear because no one recorded their words. Sides examines this imbalance to challenge the idea that history offers clarity…