The European Antarctic: Science and Strategy in Scandinavia and the British Empire

by P. Roberts

Overview

This is the first transnational study of British, Norwegian, and Swedish engagement with the Antarctic. Rather than charting how Europeans unveiled the Antarctic, it uses the history of Antarctic activity as a window into the political and cultural worlds of twentieth-century Britain and Scandinavia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349297054
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	11/25/2011
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Cultural and Intellectual History
Edition description:	1st ed. 2011
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

PEDER ROBERTS Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Institut de Recherches Interdisciplinaires sur les Sciences et les Technologies, (Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Science and Technology), University of Strasbourg, France.

Table of Contents

Science, Commerce, and the State Imperial Science in the Antarctic The Union of Hunting and Research Ivory Towers and Icy Frontiers The (Re)Invention of a Swedish Tradition A Successful Failure The Cold War Comes to the Coldest Continent Epilogue: A Continent for Performing Science

Editorial Reviews

'This elegantly written, well-researched, and thoughtful study is a major contribution to twentieth-century polar history. Drawing upon unpublished documents in Norwegian, Swedish, and English, Roberts weaves a fascinating and persuasive account of the changing relations between science and commerce as well as science and national honor in a path breaking contribution to the history of twentieth-century Antarctic exploration.' Robert Marc Friedman, professor of History of Science, University of Oslo & Tromsø and associate research scholar, Johns Hopkins University

'In this erudite and tightly argued book, Peder Roberts confirms his status as one of the most exciting early career scholars working on the history of science, with a particular focus on the Polar Regions. The material presented here offers us a fascinating transnational analysis of how Britain, Norway, and Sweden explored, studied, and governed the Antarctic. More generally, it offers a plethora of theoretical and methodological insights into how to write about the histories and geographies of science and thus deserves to be read widely.' Klaus Dodds, professor, Royal Holloway, University of London and author of Pink Ice: Britain and the South Atlantic Empire and A Very Short Introduction to the Antarctic

From the Publisher