As a kid, I was a huge fan of Tarzan movies, especially the ones from the 30s starring Johnny Weismuller. Heck, anything with jungle and natives and lost cities caught my attention. The idea of exploring the unknown and initiating contact with people untainted by knowledge of the outside world excited me, and I dreamed of being an anthropologist on one of those expeditions. Too bad jungles usually come with extreme heat and nasty bugs and other bitey thingies.In junior high and high school, I read all of the Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, but, let’s be honest, there’s not much history there, unless you read them for the subtext of the time. They reflect the racism and imperialism of the time they were written, and Burroughs’ own personal racism and deep involvement in the eugenics movement that was very popular at the time, and in fact led directly to the Holocaust.
I thought I’d recommend some more historical titles that I’ve enjoyed recently.
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard tells the story of TR’s South American expedition following his presidency. We know what a conservationist and outdoorsman he was, but did you know he nearly died in the rainforest in the process of finding a previously unknown tributary that was named for him? TR dealt with the elements, Indian attacks, and deceit within his own expedition, and he very nearly failed to return.
Also set in the Amazon, The Lost City of Z by David Grann has all the ingredients of a great jungle story. In fact, Brad Pitt is currently producing a movie version starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the eccentric British explorer, Percy Fawcett, leading an expedition into the Amazon rainforest to prove his crackpot theory that there were once large, advanced cities and civilizations there. From the earliest accounts of Spanish conquistadors and priests, there are stories of women warrior tribes (hence the name Amazon) and great cities that gave rise to the legends of El Dorado and Cibola. Not only did Fawcett’s entire expedition disappear, but so did several rescue expeditions launched in the 1920s and 1930s. And, almost a hundred years later, it turns out that his idea might not have been so crackpot after all. In the past decade, archaeologists have discovered bits of evidence that suggest that cities may actually have existed hundreds of years ago.
Fast forward to the present day, and you have Scott Wallace’s The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes. Wallace accompanies an expedition led by Sydney Possuelo as he searches for the “Arrow People”, endangered even though they’ve never been in contact with non-Indians. Possuelo has devoted his life to protecting Brazil’s indigenous population and created the agency that deals with them. Wallace ably chronicles the dangers of the journey, but he also describes for the reader the 21stcentury problems threatening the existence of these stone age people, from environmental changes, to criminal trespassers (including terrorists, drug dealers, and slavers), to arguments within the government about how to best serve the Indians. 
Jumping to the continent of Africa, Between Man and Beast by Monte Reel is about the Europeans who “discovered” gorillas and introduced them to Europeans. This discovery happened in the midst of the debate raging in Britain over Darwin’s theory of evolution. The book has many layers; it’s not just the story of the jungle expedition. It’s also the story of the cultural firestorm that Darwin’s theory ignited, intense personal and professional rivalry between scientists and explorers, and the racism, ethnocentrism, and imperialism of the late 19th century.
Tim Butcher’s Blood River is set in modern day Africa as he attempts to follow the Congo River as Stanley did in his search for Livingstone. He finds a country racked by poverty, corruption, and civil war. In its own way, Butcher’s journey is just as thrilling as Stanley’s, and he paints a vivid, and often depressing, picture of Africa. Americans generally know very little about affairs and events around the world, maybe least of all Africa. Blood River is interesting and educational.Coincidentally, as I was finishing up this blog, I became aware of a new book by photographer Jimmy Nelson called Before They Pass Away. He spent the last several years traveling the world photographing many of its last aboriginal societies. The book costs $135, so I haven’t seen it yet, but there’s an extensive website for it : http://www.beforethey.com/
If you like stories of intrepid, sometimes crazy, explorers, jungle dangers, and lost civilizations, I hope maybe I’ve given you some ideas here.
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