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Do you find it hard to get out of bed in the morning? Imagine trying to get up during 24 hours of darkness in temperatures well below freezing, surrounded by strong winds and isolated for months at a time. Welcome to Antarctica in the winter, this timely book explores how life survives the extreme conditions of one of the most sensitive and inhospitable parts of the planet, which has for centuries fascinated scientists, explorers and writers. Discover how male Emperor penguins use their feet to protect their young, why pulling out an ice core from beneath the Antarctic surface takes scientists just minutes in summer but up to five hours in winter, and how the effects of global climate change appear to be having a profound influence on the region. The book is written by experienced polar explorer, David Thomas, with a foreword by TV presenter Ray Mears. With stunning illustrations throughout, 'Surviving Antarctica' provides an invaluable insight into the lives of those living and working in this hostile environment. Intrepid tourists and polar region enthusiasts will experience a sense of adventure and excitement along this journey to the end of the Earth.The book ties in with a major new exhibition 'Ice Station Antarctica' at the Natural History Museum which runs from May 2007 to April 2008. The publication also coincides with the launch of International Polar Year which runs from March 2007. ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Read all about, "The Arctic is in the news now!"

He who will honour his native land - to win glory for his country!
Those who lived this credo are depicted herewith.

The book glosses blithely over the histories of the mythical North.
The Viking, Erik the Red, the navigators Barents and Bering and the
explorers: Nordenskiold, Nansen, Amundsen, Peary, Cook, Franklin and
Chelyuskin are all here.Also, stories of the indigenous people,
of course.

There are excellent illustrations from many sources within the covers.Arctic exploration history described at its Zenith:
here in this book!

Dag Stomberg
St. Andrews, Scotland ... Read more

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At the beginning of the twentieth century, the South Pole was the most coveted prize in the fiercely nationalistic modern age of exploration. In the brilliant dual biography, the award-winning writer Roland Huntford re-examines every detail of the great race to the South Pole between Britain's Robert Scott and Norway's Roald Amundsen. Scott, who dies along with four of his men only eleven miles from his next cache of supplies, became Britain's beloved failure, while Amundsen, who not only beat Scott to the Pole but returned alive, was largely forgotten. This account of their race is a gripping, highly readable history that captures the driving ambitions of the era and the complex, often deeply flawed men who were charged with carrying them out. THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH is the first of Huntford's masterly trilogy of polar biographies. It is also the only work on the subject in the English language based on the original Norwegian sources, to which Huntford returned to revise and update this edition.Amazon.com Review
On December 14, 1911, the classical age of polar explorationended when Norway's Roald Amundsen conquered the South Pole. Hiscompetitor for the prize, Britain's Robert Scott, arrived one monthlater--but died on the return with four of his men only 11 miles fromtheir next cache of supplies. But it was Scott, ironically, who becamethe legend, Britain's heroic failure, "a monument to sheer ambitionand bull-headed persistence. His achievement was to perpetuate theromantic myth of the explorer as martyr, and ... to glorify sufferingand self-sacrifice as ends in themselves." The world promptly forgotabout Amundsen.

Biographer Ronald Huntford's attempt to restoreAmundsen to glory, first published in 1979 under the title Scottand Amundsen, has been thawed as part of the Modern LibraryExploration series, captained by Jon Krakauer (ofInto Thin Airfame). The Last Place on Earth is a complex and fascinatingaccount of the race for this last great terrestrial goal, and it'spointedly geared toward demythologizing Scott. Though this was the ageof the amateur explorer, Amundsen was a professional: he left littleto chance, apprenticed with Eskimos, and obsessed over everydetail. While Scott clung fast to the British rule of "No skis, nodogs," Amundsen understood that both were vital to survival, and theyclearly won him the Pole.

Amundsen in Huntford's view is the "lastgreat Viking" and Scott his bungling opposite: "stupid ... recklesslyincompetent," and irresponsible in the extreme--failings that cost himand his teammates their lives. Yet for all of Scott's real orexaggerated faults, he understood far better than Amundsen the powerof a well-crafted sentence. Scott's diaries were recoveredand widely published, and if the world insisted on lionizing Scott, itwas partly because he told a better story. Huntford's bias aside, it'sclear that both Scott and Amundsen were valiant and deeplyflawed. "Scott ... had set out to be an heroic example. Amundsenmerely wanted to be first at the pole. Both had their prayersanswered." --Svenja Soldovieri ... Read more

Customer Reviews (80)

Classic Adventure Told in Style, Gives Amundsen his Due
Reading this book and watching the accompanying docudrama on PBS is the reason why I am going next year on a cruise to Antarctica.I won't come near the South Pole, but seeing and photographing the White Continent and its animals, ice, and nature at its most primal will be good enough.

"The Last Place on Earth" is a wonderfully told story of the competition between Scott and Amundsen to get to the South Pole.The author tells his tale in a way that is captivating and loaded with fascinating history as well.

I was less pleased with Huntford's following book about Shackleton because it seemed under-documented (albeit very readable.But "The Last Place on Earth" does not have those faults.Is it perfect and perfectly fair?No, but I think Huntford does history a service by spending as much time on Amundsen as the better known Scott.

Reading some of the reviews of this book on amazon.co.uk is almost comical.A number of reviewers talk about the book being a hysterical character assassination.I saw no evidence of that.People are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts as the late Senator Patrick Moynihan once observed and the fact about the race to the South Pole are pretty stark:

1.Amundsen got his polar party to the South Pole well ahead of Scott and he brought all of his men back alive and possibly in better health than they were when they started out.

2.Scott got himself and his polar party all killed and arrived at the pole a very distant second.

Yet Scott gets all the glory and gets apologia written about him while Amundsen remains obscure.That is not right and Huntford has done a lot to set the record straight.

Good read
Very detailed account of the race to the South Pole between Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Admunsen. This book will appeal to readers who have a more pragmatic and result oriented outlook on life and not so much to the more romantic and idealistic. Huntford conveys in a brilliant and well researched narrative the fundamental differences between both expeditions: Scott's, driven by the past, the glory of the British Empire, and the British people; and Admunsen'sgoing forward toward the future and a more modern "professional" attitude in exploration and sports in general.
This change in the approach to Polar expedition is paralleled in the mountaineering world.

Fantastic
An interesting and in-depth book of exactly what they went through to pave the way for those who dream of ploring. The last of the great discoverers. An insightful glance into how tough these men really were. A fantastic read.

Can't Put It Down!
The Last Place On Earth most deservedly earns the many five-star ratings listed on Amazon.Neither an avid reader nor a Antarctic aficionado, I found myself unable to put this book down.Huntford sets out on his own ambitious quest to tell the parallel tales of Scott and Amundsen's race to the pole in 560+ pages crafted to maintain the reader's interest.In this quest, Huntford is the master.

Huntford switches between Amundsen and Scott on a roughly per-chapter basis.A lesser author would render such a work either too choppy or slow enough for the reader to lose track.Huntford's treatment of the expeditions flows nicely, provides all of the detail of interest and none of the superfluous page-filler."The Last Place On Earth" seems daunting at over 1" thick, but turns out to be a pleasantly brisk read.It was a sad moment to actually finish the book.

Yes, as so many point out, Huntford clearly holds Amundsen in a great light and Scott, well, shall we say "at the other pole".Yet one cannot help but understand this sentiment, as Huntford thoroughly explains and "justifies" this view.Is it unfair to call Amundsen the master, and Scott the bungler when the objective evidence leaves no other conclusion?This bias, though pervasive, does not detract from the book's factual and adventure value.

Amundsen's triumph and Scott's tragedy serve as object lessons in leadership, logistics, and planning.One can learn much from this book and apply it to almost any enterprise.It is only the sharp contrast in the explorers' styles that provides these lessons, and warns of their profoundly different outcomes.

The section about Kathleen Scott's alleged affair could just as well have been left out.I saw no reference notation in the text, and without substantiation, it really doesn't belong especially in light of the book's matter-of-fact tone.This was one of the few instances where Huntford seemed unjustifiably hard on Scott.Although Huntford convinced me that Scott was clueless and brought his fate on himself, Scott's last chapter made me feel truly sorry for him.

Read "The Last Place On Earth".It will pay great dividends for a small investment of your time.

Just excellent. Read it to learn the truth.
This book is so good and so changed the hero worship apologist views of Scott that, all by itself, it spawned a whole set of NEW apologist rebuttals. Some of these books just can't accept the truth, and perhaps the only one that deserves a response is the work by Susan Solomon, a meteorologist, who contends that Scott may have made errors, but was basically the victim of "bad weather".

First, it's entirely unsurprising to expect a certain amount of bad weather at the South Pole(!), but the contention is that that the weather was even worse than what should have been expected. Perhaps, but the uncomfortable truth remains that Amundsen and his crew completed the journey (and gained weight on the return from the Pole), while Scott literally froze and starved.

What accounts for the difference?

Aside from much better technique, in all matters large (dogs vs ponies) and small (food that was less prone to cause scurvy), Amundsen did not presume on the weather. He started early---even a little too early with a false start---and was thus finished with the journey when the cold weather came to finish off Scott.

Is this luck on the part of Amundsen or bad judgement by Scott? Deciding that question is a matter of hindsight, but we can compare the record of the two on other matters. In every case, Amundsen allowed generous, even enormous safety factors (for example, literally abandoning food on the return from the pole, while Scott was starving), while Scott cut everything close. In essence, Scott expected all variables, including the weather, to be arranged for his convenience, while Amundsen took a humble and conservative approach since he was venturing into a total unknown.

Scott followed closely, in fact almost exactly, the route that had been pioneered by Shackelton, who came within 90 miles of the pole. This may have encouraged Scott to believe that he knew more of what to expect than was actually the case. Amundsen, in contrast, was blazing a trail on an unknown route with every step. He was forced to include large safety factors because of this.

Was Scott the martinet depicted in this book? This is probably what has provoked such vehement defenses of Scott, but in the larger picture, it doesn't matter. Scott made numerous errors in technique and finally paid the ultimate price for it. Arrogance, incompetence, bad luck, or all of those? Probably all, with only the proportions subject to debate.

Huntford wrote this book to give proper credit to the man who quietly planned and brilliantly excecuted the expedition that succeeded. Scott may have had "bad weather" or "bad luck" but he also had poor execution of a bad plan and he presumed too much.

Read the book. It's excellent, and you can then judge for yourself. ... Read more

Product Description
What goes on in Antarctica?

Is it the pristine but harsh frontier where noble scientific missions are accomplished? Or an insane corporate bureaucracy where hundreds of workers are cooped together in hi-tech communes with all the soul of a suburban office park?

Welcome to Big Dead Place, a grunt's eye view of America's Antarctic Program that shatters the well-worn clichés of polar literature. Here the heroic camaraderie and romantic desolation give way to sterile buildings populated by characters like a crazed manager who fills his boots with antifreeze, the greasepaint-obsessed worker Boozy the Clown, ghosts that haunt the foodfreezer, and horny employees who grab rare private moments coupling on the altar in the Chapel of the Snows.

The Foreword is by Eirik Sønneland, who claims the longest unsupported ski trek in the continent's history. Also included is a glossary of Antarctic slang and bureaucratese, and 16 pages of color photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

funny, fascinating, disorganized
This is a very funny book, with lots of fascinating anecdotes from an unusual social environment.

Its main drawback is that that's all it is: a grab-bag of anecdotes that jumps around randomly in time, place, and topic with no discernible logic.

One of my favorite books.
'Big Dead Place' is one of the funniest books I've read.Nick Johnson has a fantastic eye for the absurdities of life: he's a cruder and dirtier Bill Bryson, describing the crudest and dirtiest outpost soiling a pristine continent.Imagine David Foster Wallace, had Wallace been a hard-drinking garbage man prone to accidentally setting his clothes on fire.'Big Dead Place' reminds me of Wallace's masterpiece, 'A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again', but placed in Antarctica rather than on a Caribbean cruise ship.

If you like cute stories about penguins, don't read this book.If you want to learn about tyrannical Ellsworth Station commander Finn Ronne's botched penguin executions using an ice pick and a boot, and understand why McMurdo's current Raytheon managers aren't much more enlightened than Ronne, read 'Big Dead Place'.

UGMT
Our years in McMurdo mostly overlapped although our jobs did not.

I can verify at least 1/2 of the book's events are definitely true (saw it), 30% are very likely true (saw immediate evidence), 15% are probably true (saw evidence of evidence) and only about 5% are beyond my knowledge.

A clear example proving high levels of eductation do not necessarily lead to utopian existence.

Having disparaged the place, it is amazing how many people become addicted to the place including the book's author and myself.

Legends of Ice and Bureaucracy
Anyone approaching this book as a sociological critique of human mores in an extreme environment is looking for a different book.Oh, there's plenty of sociology, plenty of critique, and plenty examples of human mores in an extreme environment; but these are the simple byproduct of an intelligent man's opening his eyes and recording what he sees as an Antarctic contract/wage worker.

On the bounds of journalism, not quite Gonzo, not quite straight reportage, the author manages to weave enough Antarctic lore, daily observation, and well-researched history into the narrative, so that the reader is ever mindful of the locale.This alone is a feat of work, for at times one would swear from the corporate shenanigans at the Bottom of the World that this was written as a script for the movie version of "The Office," and rejected for being too real.

The end result--as is the case with most accounts of human bureaucracy in a sublimely inappropriate venue--is hilarity.Think of it as a Monty Python sketch on a continental scale, funded by the American government, subcontracted to an arms manufacturer, and played by a diverse cast of world citizens who can never escape the moral of the story: that things just aren't fair.

Original and a fun read
For every scientist stationed in Antarctica, there are five support crew including dish washers and trash men. Luckily for us the author, Nicholas Johnson, was among them.

Johnson's story is an insider's view of life on the bottom of the planet for those of us who will probably never make it to the South Pole (which may be a good thing, after reading about the frosty welcome tourists get from the "polies"). The author combines hilarious anecdotes about day-to-day life with the history of the continent's exploration. The photo of the Easter Island snowman alone is worth the price of the book.
... Read more

Product Description
This is the story of the early British, American and Russian expeditions to Antarctica, from the astronomer Halley's voyage in the Paramore in 1699 to the sealer John balleny's 1839 voyage in Eliza Scott, all in search of land, fur or elephant seals and all undertaken in terrible conditions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A wonderfully written summary of early Antarctic exploration
Gurney's book summarizes efforts to explore the cold Southern Ocean to about 1840, by both government-sponsored expeditions (such as James Cook) and sealers and whalers.The prose is terrific, the amount of detail just right (no long repetitive accounts of battles with ice), there are many fascinating details, and there is great background.He starts with the ancients and the development of the belief that there must be a southern continent.Then on to scurvy.[The English navy, true to national character, refused to adopt the known prevention measures until 200 years after they were discovered by the Dutch.The French had gourmet meals on their ships -- including the warship with 2 cannon, only 1 cannon ball, and it couldn't be fired because it was used to crush mustard seed for meals.]There is extensive coverage of Cook's voyages, and on to later explorers.There is excellent coverage of the later explorers,maps to show the routes, and substantial descriptions of the sealing massacres of the early 1800s.The story flows and the writing is never dull.Read this if you're interested in the early Antarctic voyages!

Excellent stories of never reaching the the goal....
It is amazing that these voyages EVER made it back to tell the tale. Unknown dangers, ICE ICE ICE, and boats that today you wouldn't cross a pond in. The quest for the mysterious continent at the bottom of the world is hundreds of years old. Well worth the read if you enjoy the history of Antarctic exploration. ... Read more