In Search of Trade and Fortune - John Cabot, Christopher Columbus and the Opening of the Atlantic

Reframes Cabot and Columbus within centuries of Atlantic trade and exploration.

What did John Cabot and Christopher Columbus truly achieve--and what did they inherit? In this compelling reassessment, Lydia Towns traces their voyages not as radical departures, but as chapters in a much older story of Atlantic navigation and commerce. Beginning with Celtic and Viking seafarers, she outlines the long prelude to the so-called Age of Exploration, showing how knowledge, ambition, and trade routes shaped the journeys of Cabot and Columbus. Drawing on recent scholarship, Towns reframes these figures within the systems they extended, not invented. She then follows their legacy into the modern age, examining how national myths, public memory, and political uses of history continue to shape our understanding of early exploration. Discovery, this book suggests, was never a solitary act.

About the author

Lydia Towns is Assistant Professor in World History at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas. She received her PhD in History, with a focus on Transatlantic History, from the University of Texas at Arlington, and currently lives in Nacogdoches, the oldest town in Texas.

Product details

• Authors: Lydia Towns
• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 01.04.2026
• EAN: 9781836391821
• ISBN: 978-1-83639-182-1
• No. of pages: 416
• Illustrations: 37 illustrations
• Subjects: History, Europe, European History, HISTORY / Europe / Western, HISTORY / Latin America / General, Geographical discovery & exploration, Western Europe, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, Latin America – Mexico, Central America, South America, History of the Americas, European history: medieval period, middle ages, HISTORY / Europe / Medieval