Nanna Katrine Lüders Kaalund. Explorations in the Icy North: How Travel Narratives Shaped Arctic Science in the Nineteenth Century. Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century Series. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021. 240 pp. $40.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8229-4659-5.
Reviewed by Terry Wettig (eSchool of Global PME)
Published on H-War (April, 2022)
Commissioned by Margaret Sankey (Air University)
For many, reading provides an opportunity to escape, if only for a short time, to places far and wide or be transported to a different time or era. In Explorations in the Icy North, author Nanna Katrine Lüders Kaalund captains the ship and helps provide the reader a portal to the faraway places that captivated the imaginations, the fortunes, and, in many cases, the very lives of those pioneers who, for myriad reasons, dared to explore the Icy North. Icy North places the reader on the threshold of opening the polar regions for the benefits of adventure, global commerce, and advancing science, leading, over the next 150 years, to greater discussions on international boundaries in an age of climate change and changing national dynamics.
For the Arctic enthusiast, this work makes for an exciting reading adventure. For the academic specializing in the Arctic and polar regions, this is a sound text designed to both enlighten and inform on the origins and motivations of early Arctic explorations. For the historian, this book shows how and why exploring the frozen regions of the earth began and evolved not only according to the changing motivations of the financiers and scientific communities but also in response to the disasters that often awaited the crews and their ships. To all categories of readers, this book demonstrates that Arctic exploration was not a cozy and safe vacation but rather an extremely dangerous undertaking into the unknown, where the adversaries included unpredictable weather as well as physically uncharted and changing geography. Additionally, the book puts into perspective the wide-ranging purposes and motives of early polar explorations and offers insights into the geographical, financial, and ego gains these daring exploits rendered.
Early nineteenth-century goals and motivations for Arctic exploration varied and ranged from national pride and scientific knowledge to financial reward. However, early efforts at scientific gains were often thwarted not only by the unknowns of the territory but by the abilities of the crewmembers charged with carrying out the necessary experiments and research. Many times, scientific advancements were slowed simply because of the nature of the unexplored territories--the crew and those sponsoring the journey simply did not know what they did not know. Often, crewmembers were hired on with no experience and learned their scientific tasks while underway.
Kaalund brings her vast personal Arctic experience to the reader, which helps authenticate and validate what is written. The book is divided into three main sections. The first part sends the reader logically and purposefully along on the early Arctic missions. After detailing the development and the changing nature of exploration for financial gain, Kaalund insightfully describes what she refers to as the evolution of from “science in the Arctic” to “Arctic science,” augmenting the text with rich maps and drawings of the landscapes, peoples, and geography of the regions. Throughout the book, Kaalund articulates and weaves into the Arctic tapestry the crucial roles of the Inuit and other indigenous peoples to the advancement of Western explorations of the polar regions, noting early on that “the success of the expeditions fundamentally relied on the help of Indigenous peoples” (p. 8). Arctic explorations of this period were, by their nature, early examples of truly transnational undertakings. Crews were often integrated to fill needed positions without regard to national borders, and expeditions were shaped by necessary reliance on indigenous Arctic peoples and the practice of sharing travel narratives coordinated, reviewed, and commented on by fellow Arctic adventurers and scientists. This international effort was, in a sense, formalized by the creation in the mid-nineteenth century of the first International Polar Year and efforts to establish crews with the intent of conducting qualified scientific experiments regardless of crewmember country of origin. The motivation and driving forces behind many expeditions was not exploration for adventure’s sake but rather the advancement of science. This morphing of crewmembers learning on the job into bona fide experts in various scientific fields began to solidify and validate the scientific nature of their efforts. However, national pride was almost always a driving force behind activities as nations strove to be the first to arrive at the top of the world and to discover a route through the Northwest Passage.
Putting into perspective and adding to the daring of the early polar scientists, they--the explorers--were not equipped with the comforts of today. Not yet invented were the lightweight down jackets and extreme weather gear, the GPS navigations systems, the cellular phones with instantaneous connections to a global audience, nor onboard nuclear technology allowing almost unlimited power for their vessels. Also not available was the ability to be resupplied or evacuated by specifically designed ice-cutting ships or airships. Rather, the early pioneers often relied on refurbished and refitted wooden ships and were often stranded and at the mercy of unpredictable polar seasons and ice which, in many cases, spanned several years.
Back home, explorers, for several reasons, relied on the literature of an unusual partner--the travel industry--to bring to life their daring adventures. Despite the hardships and, often, inexperience and singular motivations of the daring explorers of the Icy North, their stories--communicated through travel magazines--were captivating to audiences around the world not only for their adventure but for the conveying of the origins, utility, and advancement of what today is termed Arctic science. Here, in a pre-radio and pre-television era, explorers relied on magazine writers to tell their story accurately, not only saving themselves the expense of authoring manuscripts themselves but also using these outlets to drum up public support and financing. Through what Kaalund calls “virtual witnessing” and “the use of active present tense narratives” (p. 33), travel narratives provided their readers intimate insight and an invitation to participate in the adventures and scientific expeditions of the explorer, allowing the reader to see and experience the Arctic explorations as if they were there. Explorations in the Icy North is an authoritative work that well captures the beginnings of a long and storied practice of exploring the polar regions that began in the early nineteenth century and continues to have global impacts in an evolving world vastly different from even the imaginations of the early polar pioneers.
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Citation:
Terry Wettig. Review of Kaalund, Nanna Katrine Lüders, Explorations in the Icy North: How Travel Narratives Shaped Arctic Science in the Nineteenth Century.
H-War, H-Net Reviews.
April, 2022.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=57347
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. |