The three volumes of North American Exploration appraise the full scope of the exploration of the North American continent and its oceanic margins from prior to the arrival of Columbus until the end of the nineteenth century. More than an assessment of historical events, these volumes portray the process of exploration. Without forgetting the romance of discovery, the authors recognize that exploration encompasses a great deal more than the adventures themselves. All explorers are conditioned by the time, place, and circumstances of their efforts; these determine objectives, the behavior of explorers, and the consequences of their discoveries.   The second volume includes the exploration of North America from the Spanish entrada of the sixteenth century to the British and Russian explorations of the Pacific coastal regions at the end of the eighteenth century—a time during which North America was largely defined and understood in terms of advancing scientific viewpoints during the European Enlightenment. Discovery gave way to Exploration and supposition to understanding. The first volume of this projected three-volume scholarly work (A New World Disclosed, Univ. of Nebraska., 1997) focused on the discovery of North America. This volume consists of six chapters, all written by academics at American and Canadian universities, dealing chronologically with Spanish exploration in the 16th century to Russian and British explorations of the Pacific coast in the late 18th century. Other essays deal with aspects of French and British activities in the interior of North America. As the editor (geography, Univ. of Connecticut) notes in his excellent introduction, what ties these chapters together is that the initial period of discovery was now replaced by a scientific understanding of North America derived from the European Enlightenment. The third volume (A Continent Comprehended, due later this year) will discuss exploration in the 19th century. Highly recommended for academic libraries.?William F. Young, SUNY at Albany Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. John Logan Allen is a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of Passage Through the Garden: Lewis and Clark and the Image of the American Northwest. Used Book in Good Condition