Product Description: Who were the men who set off with Douglas Mawson on his heroic exploration of Antarctica? A fascinating and illuminating memoir of the intrepid adventurers who helped shape the legend. In 1911, the Australian Antarctic Expedition under Douglas Mawson left Hobart on the Aurora, headed for Antarctica...read more

Product Description: In 1933 Antarctica was essentially unexplored. Admiral Richard Byrd launched his Second Expedition to chart the southernmost continent, primarily relying on the muscle power of dog teams and their drivers who skied or ran beside the loaded sledges as they traveled...read more

Product Description: In 1860 fourteen-year-old Nathaniel Ransom followed his five older brothers into the dank foc’sle of a whaling vessel. For fifteen years he hunted seventy-ton bowheads in Arctic waters, for the many uses of “bone,” blades of flexible baleen from the leviathan’s enormous jaw, raised its value, even as petroleum replaced whale oil as a source of lighting...read more

Product Description: So, How Long Have You Been Native? is Alexis C. Bunten’s firsthand account of what it is like to work in the Alaska cultural tourism industry. An Alaska Native and anthropologist, she spent two seasons working for a tribally owned tourism business that markets the Tlingit culture in Sitka...read more

Product Description: The third in a major series of eyewitness accounts into history, disaster, war, travel and exploration, written by the people who were there, those who not only wrote about the event but who experienced it. From traveling on the world’s finest ocean liner to journeys into the frozen beauty of Antarctica...read more

In the late 1800s, “Arctic Fever” swept across the nation as dozens of American expeditions sailed north to the Arctic to find a sea route to Asia and, ultimately, to stand at the North Pole. Few of these missions were successful, and many men lost their lives en route. Yet failure did little to dampen the enthusiasm of new explorers or the crowds at home that cheered them on. Arctic exploration, Michael F. Robinson argues, was an activity that unfolded in America as much as it did in the wintry hinterland. Paying particular attention to the perils facing explorers at home, The Coldest Crucible examines their struggles to build support for the expeditions before departure, defend their claims upon their return, and cast themselves as men worthy of the nation’s full attention. In so doing, this book paints a new portrait of polar voyagers, one that removes them from the icy backdrop of the Arctic and sets them within the tempests of American cultural life. With chronological chapters featuring emblematic Arctic explorers—including Elisha Kent Kane, Charles Hall, and Robert Peary—The Coldest Crucible reveals why the North Pole, a region so geographically removed from Americans, became an iconic destination for discovery.

Product Description: This one-stop reference is a perfect resource for anyone interested in the North and South Poles, whether their interest relates to history, wildlife, or the geography of these regions in the news today.• Introduces natural phenomena and flora and fauna found at the North and South Pole regions• Discusses current concerns related to climate change and its impact on the polar regions• Furnishes students with an understanding of territorial claims and political issues surrounding the North and South Poles• Includes cross-references to enable readers to draw connections between topics• Offers further readings at the end of each entry as well as a Guide to Related Topics to stimulate student researc...read more

Product Description: In 1897 three men disappeared in the North Pole—only now have their final hours been revealed with this award-winning forensic investigation of a 120-year-old mystery On July 11th, 1897, three men set out in a hydrogen balloon bound for the North Pole...read more

Product Description: Although Arctic explorer and Hudson Bay Company surveyor John Rae (1813-1893) travelled and recorded the final uncharted sections of the Northwest Passage, he is best known for his controversial discovery of the fate of the lost Franklin Expedition of 1845...read more

Product Description: A lifelong Alaskan, Steve Kahn moved at the age of nine from the “metropolis” of Anchorage to the foothills of the Chugach Mountains. A childhood of berry picking, fishing, and hunting led to a life as a big-game guide. When he wasn’t guiding in the spring and fall, he worked as a commercial fisherman and earned his pilot’s license, pursuits that took him to the far reaches of the Alaskan wilderness...read more

Product Description: Full of extraordinary characters, this tale of a secret mission is based upon previously unpublished diarires, letters, and reportsIn 1943, with Rommel's Afrika Korps in full retreat after El Alamein, Churchill's War Cabinet met to discuss the opening of a new front...read more

Product Description: A mix of history, geography, myth, and personal truth, this book explores the Antarctic Peninsula, the South Shetland Islands, and the Weddell Sea—the most visited places in Antarctica. Filled with beautiful photographs by the author from his travels, this record offers a selection of anecdotal accounts of the merchantmen, navy men, sealers, whalers, and aviators who, along with scientists and adventurers, drew the first ghostly maps of the White Continent...read more

Product Description: An astonishing window into Shamanism and the worldviews of our distant ancestors in the Ice Age The Northwest coast makes up one of the last regions on earth to be traversed by Western explorers. In this region an ensemble of related peoples created a large cultural universe derived from the cross-fertilization of ideas, oral traditions, and art...read more

Product Description: Between 1750 and 1920 over 15,000 people visited Antarctica. Despite such a large number the historiography has ignored all but a few celebrated explorers. Maddison presents a study of Antarctic exploration, telling the story of these forgotten facilitators, he argues that Antarctic exploration can be seen as an offshoot of European colonialism...read more