A History of Arctic Exploration: Discovery, Adventure and Endurance at the Top of the World Hardcover – February 2, 2010

This book is simply beautiful. The authors provide a thorough and thoughtful analysis of the history of Arctic Exploration. I am ordering the Juha's Seafaring book as well. I found the book to be refreshing while offering fresh ideas and analysis of a large body of knowledge. I found the speculation to be spot on and cross analysis of Juha's cartographic knowledge with Matti's Orienteering, I believe led them to correct presumptions. It would be wonderful if they did another volume on antarctic exploration as well. I am very pleased with this purchase. They succeeded at bringing a lot of content together and it is a pleasure to read. This would be a good compliment to "The Arctic Grail", "Farthest North", or Dava Sobel's "Longitude". This book is a great cure for those of us with the armchair arctic fever. It does good job scratching old theories and awaking new excitement for something you thought you knew. It would be my guess that the authors both posses the D4DR gene.Writing this book could only have come from a true love of the subject matter. Bravo gentlemen! If you ever offer a Easton Press edition I would be happy to buy again.Grab it before it's gone.

Really great book but was hoping for more in depth information about explorers from 1875 to 1925. Very informative otherwise though with great illustrations. Glad I purchased,

This is a classic. An amazing book, packed with outstanding illustrations and maps,most of them in color.Highly recommended !

Maps, maps, maps!!! I go to sleep with this book every night!! If you have a fan in your family of history, exploration, maps... you have to get them this book.

recommended for those interested in a historical perspective on arctic exploration.

After reaidng most of the available expedition reports available of the diferent expeditions to Antarctica this books is a great summary !

It’s very comprehensive and interesting, however, I’m 86 pages in and have found 4 typos! That is astonishing to me. The editors names are listed in the book so shame on them.I’m still trying to figure out how people read giant heavy books like this, except perhaps in an academic library, but with the heavy size and the constant references to geographical areas but no modern maps to reference and follow the routes, I’m finding the reading exhausting.I don’t need an ancient map on every page. What I do need to a real map that I could at least reference to get my bearings while they discuss navigational routes over hundreds of years. Please do a more thorough edit too. It really cheapens content to find careless mistakes that frequently.

This oversized book (I think it weighs about ten pounds), published by the John Nurminen Foundation has a forward by Lennart Meri, President of the Republic of Estonia (1992 - 2001). It is a serious, well-illustrated (especially with maps) history of the explorers, traders, and scientists who brought back their stories of the polar lands to those of us who live in more temperate regions.The period of Arctic exploration covers almost 2500 years, starting with the Greek, Pytheas of Massalia (Marseilles) in 320 B.C. who made a voyage to a land north of Britain that he called 'Thule.' Unfortunately, his writings have been lost and there is much speculation as to whether Pytheas voyaged to Iceland, the Shetlands, or possibly northern Norway. Pytheas described both the midnight sun and something called a 'congealed sea' which modern explorers such as Fridtjof Nansen believed to be pack ice.The authors also discuss "The Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic--The Real Conquerors of the Polar Circle." Animals found above the tree line are also mentioned: "some 600 species of insect thrive in the polar circle; some of them, like the mosquito, make an indelible impression on visitors."That's one way of putting it.The drawings of Eskimos by the early European explorers are especially interesting. One of them depicts an Eskimo with a wooden leg, made by a ship's carpenter.The Vikings have a chapter of their own, although they are criticized for their lack of map-making skills. Most of the information on their exploration of the Polar Regions survives in the Sagas and a few other written sources.We are less than half-way through "A History of Arctic Exploration" when the Pope divided the world into two: "Spain was given the western half and Portugal the eastern" in the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. The English, Dutch, and French, who were shut out of the rich trade with China and East India, attempted to find a route to these rich lands over the top of North America, through a 'Northwest Passage' or over the top of Asia, through a 'Northeast Passage.'The riches of the East, and the political machinations of a pope were the first true incentives for the European exploration of the far North.Later on, whalers took advantage of the riches of the Arctic and continued the exploration of this region. As the fur trade expanded ever northward, expeditions began to be made by land, opening up the way to the Arctic Coast. Maps began to show more and more detail of the lands to the west and north of Hudson Bay. Franklin's disastrous expedition gets a whole chapter to itself.The latter part of this incredibly rich book narrates the race to the North Pole, and the voyage of the 'Gjøa,' which was the first vessel to sail across the top of North America in 1906. The airplane changed the face of Arctic exploration and one by one, put to rest the rumors of polar lands such as 'Keenan Land.'Nowadays, "even the ordinary tourist can reach the Pole. In 1991 the Russian atomically powered ice-breaker 'Sojus' took tourists to the North Pole for the first time."This book is the next-best way to make that incredible journey for yourself.

Is fine and detailed. Though the cover is just paper

Excellent

The main problem for me with this book is that it's just too big to read. When I ordered it I assumed that it would be a normal sized book, but it's a coffee table giant. You couldn't take it to bed with you. As well as that, it wasn't exactly the book I wanted. One of the authors was a collector of early arctic maps, so the book is full of them, and frankly they aren't of great interest to the casual reader. This would be a great book for a reference library, not much good for a private reader. It's origins are in Finland with an introduction by the President of Latvia. Perhaps that says something about the book.

Everything you want to learn about Arctic Explorers you can find in this book.