Overview

Although the Antarctic ice pack and some offshore islands had been sighted and even landed upon briefly as early as the 1820s, it was not until an eccentric Anglo-Norwegian explorer, Carsten F. Borchgrevink, went ashore in 1895 that a human being set foot on the Antarctic continent. T. H. Baughman provides an account of the first tentative human gropings in Antarctica, concentrating on the coalescing of official and popular attitudes that later resulted in the polar races of Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen. T. H. Baughman is chair of the History Department at Benedictine College. He is the author of Pilgrims on the Ice: Robert Falcon Scott's First Antarctic Expedition (Nebraska 1999).

Full Product Details

9780803212282

Table of Contents

Reviews

""A history of human experience in the [Antarctic] in the second half of the 19th century ... There was courage, of course, a good deal of romanticism, vanity, competition, spitefulness, and other entirely human qualities displayed by these early visitors... [The book] is very well written, as well as good history.""--Choice. ""A long overdue appreciation of ... pioneering ventures in the far south... A well-researched book that gives a fresh picture of the personalities and influences behind exploration in the late 19th century.""--Science.

A slender history of the first years of organized Antarctic exploration. Baughman (History/Benedictine College) begins at the beginning, with speculation by ancient Greeks about the existence of a vast southern continent. The region remained a mystery for almost two millennia, until the 1820's, when several different explorers sighted Antarctica. Expeditions were mounted, but all fell through; in the early 1890's, though, whale hunters began moving into Antarctic seas. One such venture included seaman Carsten Borchgrevink (1864-1930), who discovered the first sample of Antarctic plant life (lichen) and became the first human to set foot on the continent by elbowing aside his captain during the landing. Spurred on by Borchgrevink and others, men began steaming to Antarctica on scientific and exploratory expeditions. Prominent figures included Sir Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographic Society, who sponsored the expedition that gave Robert F. Scott his first command, and Dr. Frederick Cook - better known for his North Pole rivalry with Robert Peary - who served brilliantly on the Belgica expedition, saving the crew by discovering the benefits of caring penguin to stave off scurvy. Baughman looks askance at Markham, who decided that dogs were inadequate for polar work - a belief that led to the death of Scott and his companions in the 1912 polar push. But the author's attention and criticism land most heavily on Borchgrevink, a poor leader and poorer scientist whose Southern Cross expedition - conducted about a decade after his first landing on the continent - never measured up to its potential for meteorological or scientific discovery. Not the major history of this era that still begs to be written; still, a useful, informative addition to Antarcticana. (Kirkus Reviews)

A history of human experience in the [Antarctic] in the second half of the 19th century ... There was courage, of course, a good deal of romanticism, vanity, competition, spitefulness, and other entirely human qualities displayed by these early visitors... [The book] is very well written, as well as good history. --Choice. A long overdue appreciation of ... pioneering ventures in the far south... A well-researched book that gives a fresh picture of the personalities and influences behind exploration in the late 19th century. --Science.

A history of human experience in the [Antarctic] in the second half of the 19th century ... There was courage, of course, a good deal of romanticism, vanity, competition, spitefulness, and other entirely human qualities displayed by these early visitors... [The book] is very well written, as well as good history. -Choice Choice A long overdue appreciation of ... pioneering ventures in the far south... A well-researched book that gives a fresh picture of the personalities and influences behind exploration in the late 19th century. -Science Science

Author Information

T. H. Baughman is chair of the History Department at Benedictine College. He is the author of Pilgrims on the Ice: Robert Falcon Scott’s First Antarctic Expedition (Nebraska 1999).

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available