Focusing on ten key figures whose careers illuminate the history of the European exploration of North America, this book presents compelling first-person narratives that bring to life the challenges of historical scholarship in the academic classroom. * Helps to develop readers' critical thinking abilities by presenting them with a range of historical voices and historical problems relating to key episodes in the European exploration of America * Provides insights into the explorers' encounters with North America and its native inhabitants, placing them into the contexts of the political cultures and structures of the European nations and indigenous North American societies * Contains some 100 primary source documents that include ledgers, travel accounts, autobiographies, official reports, memoirs, logbooks, patents, letters, articles of agreement, and corporate minutes * Brings a rich analytical approach to a wide range of primary sources that illustrate the careers of 10 explorers through the combined expertise of an American colonialist historian and a British maritime historian