June global nonfiction: Six new books on healthcare, gambling, and more re-examine our histories

All information sourced from publishers.

The Traveller: The Revolutionary Life of George Forster and his Search for Humanity, Andrea Wulf

George Forster was a man out of time: he journeyed to the far reaches of the known world and challenged the worldviews of 18th-century Europe with radical ideas about equality and freedom. Celebrated during his lifetime, he knew Goethe, Benjamin Franklin, Mary Wollstonecraft and Alexander von Humboldt but has since been largely forgotten by history.

The Traveller seeks to restore Forster as one of the great visionaries of his era. At the age of 17, he joined Captain Cook’s second voyage – an exploration of vast contrasts from the icy world of Antarctica to the tropical islands of the South Pacific. A brilliant mind driven by boundless curiosity, he studied the diverse nature, people and cultures he encountered and came back imbued with a deep belief in the equality of races. On his return, he was feted in England, France, Germany and Poland, using his fame to advocate freedom and human rights and argue against empire, racism and slavery. He admired strong and educated women and was proud to have daughters. The book traces how – inspired by the French Revolution – he became a leader of the...

Read more