The many attempts by navigators to find a Northwest Passage via its Pacific portal all ended in failure; however, their discoveries spurred expansionist developments that would change North America forever. In Discovering Nothing David L. Nicandri maps a cast of geographic visionaries and practical explorers as they promoted or sought a workable commercial route linking the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. The discovery of the legendary northern passage proved elusive, but the equivalent land bridges that were built changed the futures of Canada and the United States. Drawing from close readings of explorers' personal journals, Nicandri provides readers with a detailed, thoroughly researched work documenting the many players and failed enterprises at the core of this centuries-spanning cartographic undertaking, as well the technological innovations that followed: chiefly, the development of both the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Northern Pacific Railroad. Beginning in the eighteenth century with the final voyage of Captain James Cook and looking through to today and the impact of global climate change on Arctic passages, Nicandri provides a comprehensive examination of the key nautical and overland expeditions - including their many successes and failures - that the quest entailed.