"A much-needed response to the expanding interest in the history of travel and travel writing, Voyages and Visions is the first attempt to sketch a cultural history of travel from the sixteenth century to the present day. The essays address the theme of travel as an historical, literary and imaginative process, focusing on significant episodes and encounters in world history. The contributors to the volume include historians of art and of science, anthropologists, literary critics and mainstream cultural historians. The subjects of their essays include European explorations of South America, India, Mexico and the South Seas; mountaineering in the Himalayas; science fiction; American post-war travel fiction; and space travel. Voyages and Visions is truly interdisciplinary; it is also essential reading for anyone interested in travel and travel literature."--Jacket.