Aerial view towards waterfront of Road Town, Tortola

Becoming the British Virgin Islands

Grappling with a history shaped by colonialism, the British Virgin Islands have built a national identity that embraces change while distancing the neighbors.

Brunei: A Tale of Soil and Oil

With an economy based almost exclusively on the oil industry, Brunei offers its citizens a high standard of living—but it comes with limitations.
Tongan beach with small wooden jetty and thatched huts

Wooden Kings and Winds of Change in Tonga

The island nation of Tonga is home to the last Polynesian monarchy.
Luanda, Angola

Luanda, Angola: The Paradox of Plenty

This vast Atlantic coast nation seems poised to become a tourist hot-spot, but uneven political and economic development may be standing in the way.
1936 map of The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Tramping Across the USSR (On One Leg)

Historian Sheila Fitzpatrick explores the limits of the Stalinist system through the biography of a marginal figure, one Anastasia Emelianovna Egorova.
A General View of the Falls of Niagara by Alvan Fisher, 1820

The Fashionable Tour: or, The First American Tourist Guidebook

Offering advice for visiting Sarasota Springs and other sights, Gideon Davison combined the travel narrative and road book to create a new type of travel guide.
The rugged coast of the Isles of Scilly, England, U.K.

Life in the Islands of the Dead

Though part of the mainland county of Cornwall, the Scilly Islands offer visitors an encounter with history and the environment like no other.
Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Arctic circle, Norway

Svalbard: Seeds of Hope

The Arctic archipelago is a bellwether for global climate change, but it also offers a safety net in a planetary disaster scenario.
James Holman by Maull & Polyblank, c. 1855

James Holman, the “Blind Traveller”

Once a celebrated travel writer, Holman struggled to find a publisher for his books thanks to a Victorian reluctance to witness his disability.
Belize Cityscape with Lighthouse and Caribbean Sea

Belize: On the Way to Somewhere

After declaring independence from Great Britain in 1981, the Central American nation directed itself down a path to tourism and transformation.