Overview

Winner of the 2011 Lionel Gelber Prize
Winner of the 2011 J. W. Dafoe Book Prize
Nominated for the 2010 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize
Nominated for the 2011 Sir John A. Macdonald Prize
Nominated for the Lela Common Book Prize for Canadian History
Based on Shelagh Grant's groundbreaking archival research and drawing on her reputation as a leading historian in the field, Polar Imperative is a compelling overview of the historical claims of sovereignty over this continent's polar regions. This engaging, timely history examines the unfolding implications of major climate changes; the impact of resource exploitation on the indigenous peoples; the current high-stakes game for control over the adjacent waters of Alaska, Arctic Canada and Greenland; the events, issues and strategies that have influenced claims to authority over the lands and waters of the North American Arctic, from the arrival of the first inhabitants around 3,000 BCE to the present; and sovereignty from a comparative point of view within North America and parallel situations in the European and Asian Arctic.
Polar Imperative is a definitive reference on Arctic history and will redefine North Americans' understanding of the sovereign rights and responsibilities of this northernmost region.

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9781553654186

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Well-written and encyclopedic -- The Times Literary Supplement <br><br> Polar Imperative is the first really detailed study of 200 years of North American sovereignty in the Arctic, written from a Canadian vantage point but with excellent documentation of American, Danish, British and Norwegian histories. -- The Globe and Mail <br><br> Grant situates her rich study of North American Arctic sovereignty in a long-ranging analysis of the region's history ... Highly recommended -- Choice , an American Library Association publication<br><br> Polar Imperative may well be the best book ever written on the history of the Arctic in North America. In the age of climate change and competition for Arctic resources, this original and provocative book will spark renewed debate about the future of the North. Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand what is going on in the Arctic today. --Ken Coates, author of Arctic Front <br>

Well-written and encyclopedic -- The Times Literary Supplement <br><br> Polar Imperative is the first really detailed study of 200 years of North American sovereignty in the Arctic, written from a Canadian vantage point but with excellent documentation of American, Danish, British and Norwegian histories. -- The Globe and Mail <br><br> Grant situates her rich study of North American Arctic sovereignty in a long-ranging analysis of the region's history ... Highly recommended -- Choice , an American Library Association publication<br><br> Polar Imperative may well be the best book ever written on the history of the Arctic in North America. In the age of climate change and competition for Arctic resources, this original and provocative book will spark renewed debate about the future of the North. Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand what is going on in the Arctic today. --Ken Coates, author of Arctic Front <br>

Author Information

Shelagh D. Grant is the author of the Clio Award-winning Arctic Justice: On Trial for Murder, Pond Inlet 1923 ; Sovereignty or Security? Government Policy in the Canadian North, 1936-1950 ; and more recently, Mittimatalik-Pond Inlet: A History, translated into Inuktitut. She is an adjunct professor in the Canadian Studies Program and research associate of the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies at Trent University, and she lives in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.<br>

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