Heritage is almost univocally conceived of as valuable and good, something we care for and preserve for ourselves and future generations. Although traditionally associated with the unique and monumental, heritage has over the last decades been broadened in response to claims to incorporate more diverse and globally representative legacies. While such claims are of course welcome, they do not embrace the bulging unruly and obnoxious legacies that now haunt us; legacies that...

Peter Lauridsen's Vitus Bering: the Discoverer of Bering Strait is a concise yet authoritative historical study of the Danish navigator whose Russian-sponsored expeditions transformed European knowledge of the North Pacific. Combining biography, maritime history, and documentary reconstruction, the book traces Bering's movement from obscure naval officer to leader of the Kamchatka expeditions, situating his achievement within the age of imperial science, cartography, and Arctic exploration...