About the Author

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto holds the William P. Reynolds Chair of History at the University of Notre Dame. He has master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Oxford, where he spent most of his teaching career, before taking up the Chair of Global Environmental History at Queen Mary College, University of London, in 2000, and the Prince of Asturias Chair at Tufts University (2005--2009).He is on the editorial boards of the History of Cartography for the University of Chicago Press, Studies in Overseas History (Leiden University), "Comparative Studies in Society and History, Journeys, "and "Journal of Global History. "Recent awards include the World History Association Book Prize (2007), Spain's Premio Nacional de Gastronomia(2005, for his work on the history of food), and the PremioNacional de Investigacion (Sociedad Geografica Espanola,2004). He has had many distinguished visiting appointments, including a Fellowship of the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences and aUnion Pacific Visiting Professorship at the University of Minnesota. He won the Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum in 1995 and the John Carter Brown Medal in 1999 and has honorary doctorates from La Trobe University and the Universidad de los Andes. He has served on the Council of the Hakluyt Society, on the Committee of English PEN, and as Chairman of the PEN Literary Foundation. His work in journalism includes regular columns in the British and Spanish press, and, among his many contributionsto broadcasting, he is the longest-serving presenter of BBC radio's flagship current affairs program, "Analysis. "He hasbeen short-listed for the most valuable literary prize in the United Kingdom.