Review by Choice Review
Award-winning author Day (La Trobe Univ., Australia) provides the first comprehensive history of the continent with the most severe environmental conditions on Earth, once thought of as a frozen wasteland. The book examines the multinational discovery, exploration, and exploitation of Antarctica from the earliest voyages of James Cook to the present. It also discusses the associated politics, which reflect a changing geopolitical world. Day conducts research using several international archives and libraries to provide readers important insights into the development of nationalism. The fascinating narrative offers a compelling historical understanding of human passion to control nature and the way national and economic interests drive scientific exploration. The inclusion of a few more maps would have been helpful. Day's work is epic and incorporates this important, unique unpopulated land into the consciousness of scholars. It is well suited for many different collections, especially those related to the study of exploration, environmental history, and the history of nationalism. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic, general, and professional libraries. G. D. Oberle III Germanna Community College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Beginning with Captain Cook's voyages in the 1770s and concluding with late twentieth-century threats to international treaties and conventions, Antarctica: A Biography purports to be as comprehensive a title on the southern continent as possible. Day deserves praise for crafting an interesting historical survey of exploration and scientific research that follows a clear narrative and includes entries from lesser-known expeditions. But there are some surprising omissions. An overtly negative consideration of Robert Scott's doomed South Pole journey includes reference only to Roland Huntford's infamous 1979 biography while ignoring David Crane's more recent and evenhanded title. Ernest Shackleton's survival epic after the loss of his ship, the Endurance, a hallmark of southern heroic tales, receives only one scant paragraph. Strangest of all, in the section on aviation, Day does not include the man who first flew there or piloted an aircraft over more than 1,000 miles of the continent, Alaskan Ben Eielson, instead giving the expedition organizer, Australian explorer George Wilkins, all the credit. To be sure, Day has accomplished some interesting things here, but it is not as complete a volume as claimed.--Mondor, Colleen Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This sweeping but uninvolving history of Antarctic exploration revolves around the question of who owns a continent that no one really wants. Historian Day (Claiming a Continent) traces two centuries of expeditions that struggled to unravel the mystery of Antarctica (is that unapproachable line on the horizon a coast, a group of ice-bergs, a fog-bank, an island, or a continent?). Entwined in the explorers' epic befuddlement are perennial efforts by rival nations to claim sovereignty over the elusive terrain by means of competitive mapping and landmark naming and stately possession rituals-flag dropping, fusillade firing, cairn building, plaque inscribing, and proclamation reading-performed for audiences of bemused penguins. There are moments of high drama in the saga, from Scott's and Shackleton's doomed journeys to the pole to Robert Byrd's heroic overflights, but mainly it is a picaresque-and a sometimes tedious one-of semihapless voyages and treks and semiserious diplomatic wranglings. Day provides frustratingly little scientific information about the unique polar environment, but in the background he shows us a swelling fleet of seal hunters, whaling vessels, and factory ships as they slaughter the region's abundant marine wildlife to the verge of extinction. More than the farcical human empire building he foregrounds, that gripping natural history provides the book's drama. 35 b&w photos. Agent: Andrew Lownie, the Andrew Lownie Literary Agency Ltd. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
When was the last time you read a biography of a continent? Day (research associate, La Trobe Univ.; Conquest: How Societies Overwhelm Others) gives readers the opportunity with his dense and thorough history of the continent. Organized chronologically, chapters cover two to 60 years and have catchy subtitles like "Die Like Gentlemen," "Who Shall Own the Antarctic?," and "This Bloody Flag-Raising Business." Day opens his opus with James Cook in the 1770s, circling Antarctica but never sighting the continent itself. From there, it is game on with various places in addition to Great Britain-Spain, France, Norway, Russia, America, etc.-dodging icebergs, profiting from the indiscriminate killing of seals and whales, charting coastlines, and claiming Antarctica for themselves. Day introduces all the major (and minor) Antarctic expeditions and discusses the historical variety of theories regarding polar conditions. Most of his sources are the expedition documents that are the mainstay of Antarctic history. Of note is his inclusion of a 2012 translation of Shirase Nobu's account of a Japanese expedition of 1910-12. Day closes with a look at current issues regarding the continent, including international treaties, resource extraction, tourism, and scientific research. VERDICT Those seeking a single scholarly history of Antarctica will be well served by Day's offer, but it will require serious commitment from general readers. (Illustrations not seen.)-Margaret Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville Lib., IN (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Day (Research Fellow/La Trobe Univ., Melbourne; Conquest: How Societies Overwhelm Others, 2008, etc.) examines the strange history of Antarctica, "a continent of many claimants and no owners." In the 18th century, much of the South Pacific was still unexplored. French, Russian and Americans vied to discover a supposed temperate continent, known as "the Great South Land," falsely noted on maps. The expectation was that this would prove to be a habitable, resource-rich landmass suitable for colonization. This hope was dispelled when British explorer James Cook circled the South Pole and, in 1777, published a popular account A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World. In his book, Cook noted the existence of massive icebergs in the region of the South Pole. In a follow-up expedition, a Russian naval officer reported that the glaciers were attached to a landmass. By the 1830s, America, Britain and France launched rival expeditions to discover whether there was a continent worth claiming at the South Pole, but the major enterprise was harvesting the abundant whale and seal populations. Because Antarctica was uninhabited, laying claim to the continent would not occur through conquest, and planting a flag on the coast to establish sovereignty was an empty gesture. The legend of the continent increased with the victorious race to the South Pole in 1912 by Norway's Roald Amundsen and British contender Robert Scott. By 1929, while Britain, Norway, Australia and Argentina all made claims to Antarctica and its potential resources, America moved pre-emptively. Richard Byrd's daring flight over the South Pole allowed him to map and photograph the entire continent. Following World War II, strategic Cold War considerations also came into play. The United States, Soviet Union and others recognized Antarctica's scientific importance and established bases there. Day's well-researched history covers all these stories and more. An intriguing addition to a centuries-long geopolitical adventure story.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
