Review by Choice Review
This sumptuously produced volume attempts to illustrate Arctic history "through its human legacies" by taking an object-focused approach. Most of the objects, including book illustrations, photographs, prints, and maps spanning 500 years of Western contact with the Arctic, and, to a lesser degree, objects related to Indigenous Arctic cultures, have been predominantly drawn from the collections of the British Library, of which the author is lead curator for digital mapping. Illustrations make up the book's bulk, accompanied by loosely related one- to two-page essays about, or inspired by, the objects illustrated. Divided into three parts, the book covers, first, the early approaches of Westerners to the Arctic, then the specific seeking of a Northwest Passage through the Arctic; it ends with the legacy of those explorers' experiences in shaping Westerners' views of the Arctic today. The book's organization makes it an interesting polar scrapbook that can be dipped into a little at a time, but the lack of a continuous narrative makes it most valuable as a way of seeing samples of the Arctic-related materials scattered throughout the vast holdings of the British Library, some not readily available to the general public. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. --Robert M. Bryce, independent scholar
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
