Ms. Alexander's work is carefully researched and beautifully written. She also has clear biases on events and people but I'd prefer to have had her own opinions more boldly written. Nevertheless, this is a "must" history for Bounty fans.

Bligh--a man of tremendous strengths--had at least one glaring weakness. He was a man with a red hot temper. Granted--like many people given to "blowing their tops"--he got over it quickly but, unfortunately for him, some people targeted by his flare-ups had difficulty forgetting his insults. Perhaps amazingly, his crew--largely composed of very young, no doubt immature men--went through great trials before they finally broke. Even then, the majority of men remained faithful to their fallen leader, to the point of sailing with him into almost certain death.

Somewhere here we are missing some of the most important psychological aspects of the story. I try to place myself in the role of "loyal" crewman and wonder what I would have chosen on the day of the mutiny. Would I have elected almost certain death in a leaky skiff over probable survival in the Bounty? I don't really know but it would have been one Hell of a decision. Still, the majority of crewmen remained loyal and tried to pile into a rowboat with 7 inches of freeboard!

At the same time, despite Bligh's navigational skills and despite his courage, his must be regarded as a failure in leadership. I'm not sure where this failure occurred but it probably happened on Otaheite. He should have--in retrospect--been less lenient with his "men". Most of these were very young people, many only teenagers, some of whom were permitted to live amongst the Polynesians. It must have been a heady brew. They received respect that they'd never experienced in England. They obtained women, even wives, and were tatooed in displays of tribal honor. It was simply too attractive to many of these boys. Twenty-three year old Fletcher Christian should have known better but--suffering from alcohol and the pressure of obligations he no doubt felt to his Polynesian brethren--he cracked like a spoiled egg. Nowadays, psychologists would probably diagnose clinical depression and I have little doubt that Christian had "been in Hell for weeks", just as he described.

I'm not sympathetic with the mutineers. Captains--men of flesh and blood--weren't perfect and the Admiralty recognized this fact. The crew were supposed to be loyal and beyond provocation. Period. The mutinous members of the crew paid for the sins one way or another--just as they deserved. It is unfortunate that some loyal crewmen paid their price, too.

Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

Ms. Alexander's work is carefully researched and beautifully written. She also has clear biases on events and people but I'd prefer to have had her own opinions more boldly written. Nevertheless, this is a "must" history for Bounty fans.

Bligh--a man of tremendous strengths--had at least one glaring weakness. He was a man with a red hot temper. Granted--like many people given to "blowing their tops"--he got over it quickly but, unfortunately for him, some people targeted by his flare-ups had difficulty forgetting his insults. Perhaps amazingly, his crew--largely composed of very young, no doubt immature men--went through great trials before they finally broke. Even then, the majority of men remained faithful to their fallen leader, to the point of sailing with him into almost certain death.

Somewhere here we are missing some of the most important psychological aspects of the story. I try to place myself in the role of "loyal" crewman and wonder what I would have chosen on the day of the mutiny. Would I have elected almost certain death in a leaky skiff over probable survival in the Bounty? I don't really know but it would have been one Hell of a decision. Still, the majority of crewmen remained loyal and tried to pile into a rowboat with 7 inches of freeboard!

At the same time, despite Bligh's navigational skills and despite his courage, his must be regarded as a failure in leadership. I'm not sure where this failure occurred but it probably happened on Otaheite. He should have--in retrospect--been less lenient with his "men". Most of these were very young people, many only teenagers, some of whom were permitted to live amongst the Polynesians. It must have been a heady brew. They received respect that they'd never experienced in England. They obtained women, even wives, and were tatooed in displays of tribal honor. It was simply too attractive to many of these boys. Twenty-three year old Fletcher Christian should have known better but--suffering from alcohol and the pressure of obligations he no doubt felt to his Polynesian brethren--he cracked like a spoiled egg. Nowadays, psychologists would probably diagnose clinical depression and I have little doubt that Christian had "been in Hell for weeks", just as he described.

I'm not sympathetic with the mutineers. Captains--men of flesh and blood--weren't perfect and the Admiralty recognized this fact. The crew were supposed to be loyal and beyond provocation. Period. The mutinous members of the crew paid for the sins one way or another--just as they deserved. It is unfortunate that some loyal crewmen paid their price, too.

Ron Braithwaite

The author is a great writer. She's done a masterfull job of telling the true story. Apparantly much 'bounty' myths were often newspaper gosip & misinformation to appease powerful forces.

The author is a great writer. She's done a masterfull job of telling the true story. Apparantly much 'bounty' myths were often newspaper gosip & misinformation to appease powerful forces.

Alexander gives a gripping, colorfully written true story of the mutiny on the ship Bounty in the late 18th century. Bligh's journals, along with the mutineers, combine to help tell the tale. It is a part of history I have been drawn to since I can remember. Hollywood brought it into our optic nerves. But the movie tended to romanticize how it portrayed the mutineers; almost apologetic.

The bibliography and source reference is massive. There are times where the author does not help us in understanding dialect and the meaning behind actions.

Alexander decides to begin with a summary, and the hunt for the fugitive mutineers (by the ship Pandora). We are then introduced to the Bounty (long delays leaving England's harbor) and the journey to bring back breadfruit (initiated by botanist Sir Joseph Banks). She gives us a brief background and early life of Bligh, the shipmates and the ship itself. Bligh proved to be intelligent and a good leader. Fletcher Christian (the lead mutineer) also had a promising career ahead.

There are perhaps dozens of reasons for the mutiny; the accounts vary. But the officers decline in leadership and the corruption at Tahiti are strong ones.

The final mutineers defense and sentence at the court martial draws the reader in, especially the writings of seventeen year old mutineer Peter Heywood. We find ourselves sympathizing with him. I find that even these young men had a superior intellect compared to today, and were considered "responsible" at a much earlier age. The escaped mutineers adopted an island, later to be discovered by a U.S. ship:

What they find on the island is more a garden of Eden. The descendants are Christian in faith, they are hard working, prosperous, and loving. Over time, the myths and falsities of the lives of the men of the Bounty are slowly being worked out.

"What caused the mutiny on the Bounty? The seduction at Tahiti, Bligh's harsh tongue----perhaps. But more compellingly a night of drinking and a proud man's pride, a low moment on one gray dawn, a momentary and fatal slip in a gentleman's code of discipline----and then the rush of consequences to be lived out for a lifetime."

Wish you well
Scott

Very well researched audiobook with excellent narrative. Many historical points rarely mentioned by other historians of the event with a very good all round history of the events themselves. Narrative also never ceases to bore, a very important aspect of any audiobook.

Popular histories sometimes (not always, but often enough to notice) suffer from one of two things: a deliberate paring away of detail--be it description or incident--to make for easier reading or a slimmer volume, or a concerted refusal to acknowledge or explore information that does not gird the author's thesis. Caroline Alexander's The Bounty has neither condition: it is as exhaustive an examination of a single moment of history as anything I've ever read.

Which is not to say that the reading is not compelling. Alexander goes to some pains to strip away the romantic veneer covering over the facts of the mutiny and those culpable in its execution. Nor does she provide complete exoneration to Captain Bligh, who is revealed as an able, conscientious and decent man, whose few failings were amplified by a flawed crew and lack of support (mainly in the absence of marines on board The Bounty) from the Admiralty. Oddly, but appropriately for such a scholarly work, Alexander pieces together much of what is known about lead mutineer Fletcher Christian from the extant evidence, which in most cases is second hand.

The exhaustive nature of the book does tend to drag in places. The build up to court martial introduces the tiresome (no more here though than she was doubtlessly so in life) Fanny Hayward, along with detailed explanation of the members of the court martial. Interesting and ultimately useful in sorting out the fractured loyalties that defined these men and their subsequent actions, it does get to be slow reading.

But more than a story of one mutiny in the Pacific, it is a tale of a changing world, where the virgin paradise of Tahiti is imbued with the failings of the British Empire, where Nelson's final words, "thank God I have done my duty," are not the anthem of a subsequent age but an epitaph for a waning one. An epic worth reading.

Having studied the Bounty mutiny and its aftermath for nearly forty years now, I didn't feel as if there was much new material - but a friend who recommended this book to me did not steer me wrong.

Ms. Alexander's fresh treatment of the material - as well as her work to uncover new sources and provide a different look - is well worth the read. In particular, her research into the career of Bligh both before and after the mutiny; his use of common supplies to guarantee the health of the crew (learned no doubt from his travels with Captain Cook), and his later life all leant new and added dimension to a story which has gone stale with the telling.

Her postulation regarding Christian's return to England from Pitcairn Island is well-thought-out and well-researched. Perhaps some day we'll learn the truth here - and while it's likely to remain speculation, she makes a compelling point.

This book is worth the read for any student of the Bounty's history and the aftermath of the mutiny, both for Ms Alexander's writing-style and for her fresh research and treatment of the material.

One ought not to pick up a weighty book like this one expecting a comic book treatment or movie script. Reading this long tortuous story is difficult but superbly rewarding work. Your time is amply rewarded by the author whose every page rings with truth and insight. It is a story that will never die because it shows humanity in all its flavours and textures, at its best and its worst. The author makes few judgments of her own, letting the story as viewed from dozens of mouths speak for itself, usually. In the end you know where everyone came from, where they ended up, and what they said and did - a lot of information but told in a way that keeps you turning the pages and never jades. I am so glad I read this book! Thank you Caroline Alexander.

Yes this is a well researched tome. However, there is an absolute dearth of any valid detailing of the Tahitian cultural context of the day. After all there was a great deal of interaction with this Polynesian society for all on the Bounty. Further enlightenment for the reader would have been gained with a least a cursory reference to Norman Hall and Nordhoff's (in)famous trilogy, which, lets face it has concretised "The Mutiny on the Bounty" into our modern consciouness,

Ms. Alexander has done excellent and extensive research; however, in doing so, glosses over the human element of the story in which real people, among them Bligh and Christian, with real emotions, and acting and reacting to one another, played out in dramatic fashion the contents of those emotions. Her drive to uncover the facts keeps her from understanding what really transpired on the Bounty, and that is, that Bligh's obtrusive, obstreperous, ubiquitous and obnoxious behavior for 16 months, most of those months at tight quarters which few of us experience (Ms. Alexander apparently has not) drove a humiliated and desperate Christian to desert the Bounty on a make-shift raft, suicidal though he knew it to be, and that only the persuasiveness of other crew members while Christian was at wit's end and no longer able to act rationally, provoked Christian to mutiny. I know what it was like: I've sailed with a modern Bligh. History's verdict, Hollywood nothwithstanding, stands.

I enjoyed reading Tony Horwitz's Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before and Nathaniel Philbrick's Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, The US Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842. So I decided to fill in the gap by reading The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander. While The Bounty is fascinating in spots, Alexander could have streamlined things a bit by leaving out much trivia about the less important characters.

Lt. William Bligh was assigned to the Breadfruit Expedition, the purpose of which was to transport breadfruit from Tahiti and transplant them in Jamaica. Unfortunately, the British Navy was readying for war and the Admiralty was not willing to make a full commitment to the expedition. The Bounty was too small, there were not enough men assigned and the navy failed to promote Bligh to Master and Commander before his departure. To make matters worse, Bligh was assigned not one commissioned officer nor one marine (Captain Cook traveled with at least a dozen).

Alexander provides us with an in-depth look at the backgrounds of the key characters, the expedition and the events leading up to the mutiny. She also recounts efforts of The Pandora to capture the mutineers, and their subsequent court-martial. Nine of the mutineers were never captured, although eight of them died on Pitcairn Island within several years of the mutiny. The author uses journals, letters, Admiralty records, wills, etc. to find answers to many pressing questions including what was the real reason for the mutiny? What was Fletcher Christian's state of mind during the mutiny? Was Lt. Bligh really an overbearing officer? And who exactly took part in the mutiny? She also seeks to undo some revisionist history written by the families of Peter Heywood and Fletcher Christian in order to discredit Lt. Bligh and to redeem some family honor.

Unfortunately, I dislike the way Alexander organized the body of her work. She first recounts the efforts of The Pandora to capture the mutineers before she provides the history of the expedition and the mutiny. I found myself going back to re-read these sections. Also, with any book involving large numbers of people, it was often times difficult to keep them all straight. Also, sometimes she gave just a little bit too much information about less important characters. The author does provide us with a list of characters, however. She also includes many maps, drawings, paintings, portraits and photographs to enhance her book.

Overall, The Bounty is a first rate book and Alexander is to be commended for the lengths she went to find the true story behind this famous mutiny.

It was a great read. Well written, seems historically accurate, easy to read. For me, a casual history reader, there was a bit too much detail for my liking.

This is a superbly researched book on the Mutiny which dispells the myth propagated through the ages, amply re-inforced by Hollywood. The book must rate as the definitive objective account of the events and circumstances surrounding the appropriation of one of HM ships by the crew. Although the individual motivation for these occurances is not clearly defined the reader is left to develop an understanding of how leadership can be undermined by petty personal differences, inappropriate remarks and individual character deficiencies. Bligh was undoubtedly an experienced man of the sea, brought to fruition by his voyage with Captain Cook . His Captains role (but rank as Lieutenant)on the Bounty was undermined by lack of competent officers, his inability to discipline them according to Naval Regulations and the absence of Marines to protect and enforce his authority. His uncertainty in these matters due to the lack of support is almost palpable. His willingness towards leniency by the standards of the day appear to have done more to encourage than to dispell would be mutineers. In those days seamen needed of their officers authority but not cruelty, respect but not friendship. What is not in doubt is his courage and navigational skills as well as his insight into the islanders, saving the longboats crew at their fist trip ashore. As was usual in this era the patronage of some crew members saved their lives at the courtmartial and the final decision to stay on Pitcairn are all key memories of an extraorinary text.

This book is what the first-rate historian produces: exhaustively researched, a narrative reordered for dramatic effect, character development and events placed in contemporary context. But I searched in vain for any reference to the Nordoff & Hall trilogy which led to the popular misconception of the mutiny. Norm Carpenter