Overview

The history of the Cold War has focused overwhelmingly on statecraft and military power, an approach that has naturally placed Moscow and Washington center stage. Meanwhile, regions such as Alaska, the polar landscapes, and the cold areas of the Soviet periphery have received little attention. However, such environments were of no small importance during the Cold War: in addition to their symbolic significance, they also had direct implications for everything from military strategy to natural resource management. Through histories of these extremely cold environments, this volume makes a novel intervention in Cold War historiography, one whose global and transnational approach undermines the simple opposition of East and West.

Full Product Details

Author:   Julia Herzberg ,  Christian Kehrt ,  Franziska Torma
Publisher:   Berghahn Books
Imprint:   Berghahn Books
Volume:   14
ISBN:  

9781785339868

ISBN 10:   1785339869
Pages:   330
Publication Date:   19 October 2018
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations INTRODUCTIONS Exploring Ice and Snow in the Cold War Julia Herzberg, Christian Kehrt, and Franziska Torma Cryo-history: Ice, Snow, and the Great Acceleration Sverker Soerlin PART I: SCIENCE: SITES OF KNOWLEDGE Chapter 1. Snow and Avalanche Research as Patriotic Duty? The Institutionalization of a Scientific Discipline in Switzerland Dania Achermann Chapter 2. An Orgy of Hypothesizing : The Construction of Glaciological Knowledge in Cold War America Janet Martin-Nielsen Chapter 3. Camp Century and Project Iceworm : Greenland as a Stage for US Military Service Rivalries Ingo Heidbrink Chapter 4. Inuit Responses to Arctic Militarization: Examples from East Greenland Sophie Elixhauser PART II: POLITICS OF CONFRONTATION AND COOPERATION Chapter 5. Creating Open Territorial Rights in Cold and Icy Places: Cold War Rivalries and the Antarctic and Outer Space Treaties Roger D. Launius Chapter 6. An Environment Too Extreme? The Case of Bouvetoya Peder Roberts and Lize-Marie van der Watt Chapter 7. Managing the White Death in Cold War Soviet Union: Snow Avalanches, Ice Science, and Winter Sports in Kazakhstan, 1960s-1980s Marc Elie PART III: CULTURES AND NARRATIVES OF ICE AND SNOW Chapter 8. Laboratory Metaphors in Antarctic History: From Nature to Space Sebastian Vincent Grevsmuhl Chapter 9. Cold War Creatures: Soviet Science and the Problem of the Abominable Snowman Carolin F. Roeder and Gregory Afinogenov Chapter 10. Negotiating Coldness : The Natural Environment and Community Cohesion in Cold War Molotovsk-Severodvinsk Ekaterina Emeliantseva Koller Chapter 11. An Exploration of the Self: Reinhold Messner's Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1989 Pascal Schillings Conclusion: Histories of Extreme Environments beyond the Cold War Julia Herzberg, Christian Kehrt, and Franziska Torma Index

Reviews

Collectively, the geographically diverse case studies in Ice and Snow in the Cold War address a topic that is important but relatively understudied. The book moves both environmental history and Cold War studies in intriguing new directions. - Matthew Farish, University of Toronto

Author Information

Julia Herzberg Professor for the History of East Central Europe and Russia in Early Modern Times at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munich. She is currently working on an environmental history of frost in Russia that scrutinizes various social and cultural aspects of Russia's harsh climate. Over the last few years she has done research on the environmental history of Central Eastern Europe and Russia. Her publications include the collection Umweltgeschichte(n): Ostmitteleuropa von der Industrialisierung bis zum Postsozialismus (2013), coedited with Martin Zuckert und Horst Foerster.

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