"This is a beautifully written and illustrated account of the discovery and rediscovery of America in the late fifteenth to early sixteenth century. Towns incorporates much recent published research whilst being unafraid to offer clear and original analysis. Her core focus is not only the stories of the voyages of Columbus and the two Cabots, John and Sebastian, but the motivations for the journeys—as much merchant enterprises as means of imperial endeavor. In Search of Trade and Fortune is, for sheer originality of thought and sound scholarship, a book I shall wish to keep at hand." -- Margaret Condon, Cabot Project, University of Bristol-------------------------------- "In a fascinating book that cleverly intertwines the careers of Christopher Columbus and John Cabot, Towns sets their voyages within contemporary knowledge of the Atlantic, which was fuller than is generally assumed, and shows that English merchants, and then John Cabot, played a much under-estimated role in the discovery of America." -- David Abulafia, professor emeritus of Mediterranean history, University of Cambridge, and fellow of Gonville and Caius College-------------------------------- “This work is a vital and compelling look at the interconnected systems of the early Atlantic World. Brilliantly re-contextualizing familiar explorers within the crucial economic and historical networks that made their journeys possible, this book is a masterful examination of how the Old World truly expanded into the New.”-------------------------------- -- Mylynka Kilgore Cardona, associate professor of history, East Texas A&M University-------------------------------- “Towns offers a much-needed corrective to the notion that Columbus’ Atlantic venture was new and unique, correctly placing the ‘great’ Atlantic explorers in their proper context of trade and merchant enterprises. In Search of Trade and Fortune illuminates the British activities in the North Atlantic, demythologizing Columbus and Spanish successes in the process.”-------------------------------- -- Marguerite Ragnow, curator of the James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota-------------------------------- “This debut book from Towns reconnects exploration history with one of its most unknowable subjects―John Cabot―about whom scholars have scarcely any reliable documentation. Until Towns’s important intervention, we have been forced to wade through decades of scholarship bubbling with unfounded mythologies, untenable assumptions, and unimportant questions. Towns places Cabot’s past in the context of a broader movement toward European expansionism in the centuries preceding his life alongside the public memory that has largely constructed him as an idealized explorer over the last two centuries. By revisiting sources produced in the 1490s, secondary literature, as well as archival materials from Canada, the UK, and the USA, Towns has produced a seminal work of scholarship centered on Cabot at his intersection with the Colombian lore with which he has become enmeshed. By understanding Cabot’s own alliances and self-interests, Towns for the first time forays beyond superficial knowledge about the man to establish the depth of his involvement in European expansionism into North America. Of particular note is Towns’s study of the contested memory of Cabot in the scholarly and public spheres.”-------------------------------- -- Lauren Beck, Canada Research Chair in Intercultural Encounter and professor of visual and material culture studies, Mount Allison University