The European Antarctic: Science And Strategy In Scandinavia And The British Empire (palgrave Studies In Cultural And Intellectual History)

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. This is the first transnational study of British, Norwegian, and Swedish engagement with the Antarctic, from the years before the Great War to the early years of the Cold War. 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. Science was a resource for states attempting to reveal - and control - the Antarctic and its resources. But it was also a source of personal and institutional capital, a means of earning civic status and professional advancement. The book ranges from the politics of whaling management to the changing value of geographical exploration in the academy and the rise of specialized, state-sponsored research, presenting an episodic rather than a linear narrative focused on historically specific networks and strategies. Drawing upon scholarship in critical geopolitics, imperial environmental history, and the cultural history of science, author Peder Roberts argues that despite its splendid geographical isolation, the Antarctic was a field for distinctly local European dreams "This is the first transnational study of British, Norwegian, and Swedish engagement with the Antarctic, from the years before the Great War to the early years of the Cold War. 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. Science was a resource for states attempting to reveal - and control - the Antarctic and its resources. But it was also a source of personal and institutional capital, a means of earning civic status and professional advancement. The book ranges from the politics of whaling management to the changing value of geographical exploration in the academy and the rise of specialized, state-sponsored research, presenting an episodic rather than a linear narrative focused on historically specific networks and strategies. Drawing upon scholarship in critical geopolitics, imperial environmental history, and the cultural history of science, author Peder Roberts argues that despite its splendid geographical isolation, the Antarctic was a field for distinctly local European dreams"-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Introduction....Pages 1-10 Science, Commerce, and the State....Pages 11-29 Imperial Science in the Antarctic....Pages 31-52 The Union of Hunting and Research....Pages 53-76 Ivory Towers and Icy Frontiers....Pages 77-96 The (Re)invention of a Swedish Tradition....Pages 97-116 A Successful Failure....Pages 117-140 The Cold War Comes to the Coldest Continent....Pages 141-156 Epilogue: A Continent for Performing Science....Pages 157-161 Back Matter....Pages 163-266