Since the first attempts by Europeans to penetrate Greenland's interior in the 18th century, its geometric center, Eismitte ("middle ice" in German), has been one of the most forbidding but scientifically rich locations in the Arctic. Tracing its history from European contact through to the Cold War, this study shows how Eismitte was a setting for scientific knowledge production as well as diplomatic maneuvering, providing new insights into the history of polar exploration and the intertwining of the scientific and geopolitical spheres. Author Janet Martin-Nielsen draws on new research in private, government, military, and institutional archives in multiple countries to explain how this very remote place became a highly charged site of collaboration, contestation, and competition.

Focusing on extreme environments, from Umberto Nobile's expedition to the Arctic to the commercialization of Mt Everest, this volume examines global environmental margins, how they are conceived and how perceptions have changed. Mountaintops and Arctic environments are the settings of social encounters, political strategies, individual enterprises, geopolitical tensions, decolonial practises, and scientific experiments. Concentrating on mountaineering and Arctic exploration between 1880 - 1960, contributors to this volume show how environmental marginalisation has been discursively implemented and materially generated by foreign and local actors. It examines to what extent the status and identity of extreme environments has changed during modern times, moving them from periphery to the centre and discarding their marginality. The first section looks at ways in which societies have framed remoteness, through the lens of commercialization, colonialism, knowledge production and sport, while the second examines the reverse transfer, focusing on how extreme nature has influenced societies, through international network creation, political consensus and identity building. This collection enriches the historical understanding of exploration by adopting a critical approach and offering multidimensional and multi-gaze reconstructions. This book is essential reading for students and scholars interested in environmental history, geography, colonial studies and the environmental humanities.

In the Nineteenth Century people could gain fame and fortune by "discovering" and documenting things that were already known to exist like the source of the Nile and the North Pole. For decades trappers and prospectors had told about the wonders of the area that became Yellowstone Park, but no credible person had written about the falls canyons and geysers there. An ambitious politician, Nathaniel P. Langford, decided to make his name by promoting an expedition and publicizing its activities in 1870. An army lieutenant named Gustavus Doane maneuvered to lead the expedition's army escort for the same reason. Their written accounts of the big "discovery" of Wonderland were the basis for the park's founding in 1872.This book brings together the words of these men and provides historical context for the exploration and for the founding of America's first national park.

The Beagle Diary was used to write Darwin's famous book 'Voyage of the Beagle' (1839). The narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836. Darwin describes each day of the voyage, some in intimate detail, during the Beagle's circumnavigation of the globe.

Originally published in 1868, this book follows the life of Prince Henry, including chapters on the Siege of Tangier, the capture of Ceuta and the death of Prince Henry.

Innocence Abroad explores the process of encounter that took place between the Netherlands and the New World in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The "discovery" of America coincided with the foundation of the Dutch Republic, a correspondence of much significance for the Netherlands. From the opening of their Revolt against Hapsburg Spain through the climax of their Golden Age, the Dutch looked to America--in political pamphlets and patriotic histories, epic poetry and allegorical prints, landscape painting and decorative maps--for a means of articulating a new national identity. This book demonstrates how the image of America fashioned by the Dutch, and especially the twin topoi of "innocence" and "tyranny," became integrally associated with evolving political, moral and economic agenda. It investigates the energetic Dutch response to the New World while examining, more generally, the operation of geographic discourse and colonial ideology within the Dutch Golden Age.

In 1899, one of America's wealthiest men gathered together an interdisciplinary team of experts--many who would become legendary in their fields--to join him, entirely at his expense, on a voyage to the largely unknown territory of Alaska. The Harriman Expedition was, and remains to this day, unprecedented in its conception and execution. This book traces the story of the expedition: where they went, what they did, and what they learned--including finding early evidence of glacial retreat, assessing the nature and future of Alaska's natural resources, and making important scientific discoveries, including the accumulation of an astonishing collection of specimens. A second thread involves the lives and accomplishments of the members of the party: weaving multiple biographical strands into the narrative of the journey and the personal experiences that they shared in their odyssey in Alaskan waters. This is the first comprehensive, scholarly treatment of the Harriman Alaska Expedition since the 1980s. It features the diaries, letters home, and post-Expedition writings, including unpublished autobiographies, generated by the members of the party.

The schooner Bowdoin was designed and built in 1921 in Maine under the direction of naval officer and explorer Donald MacMillan. She is the only American schooner built specifically for Arctic exploration, and has sailed above the Arctic circle 29 times. Though named for Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin is owned by the Maine Maritime Academy, where it is used in the sail training program. The Bowdoin is the official sailing vessel of the state of Maine and is a registered national landmark. Author Kathryn Beales explores the first one hundred years of the Bowdoin's life at sea, covering its inception as a vessel that could withstand the rigors of Arctic exploration, fascinating stories of it many trips north, its commissioning by the U.S. Navy during World War II-and its subsequent decommissioning and sale as a hulk-its restoration to sailing status in 1968, and its final home at Maine Maritime. The vessel continues to sail and make exploratory trips to the Arctic. Her last open-sea voyage was to Nova Scotia in 2014.

Access to new plants and consumer goods such as sugar, tobacco, and chocolate from the beginning of the sixteenth century onwards would massively change the way people lived, especially in how and what they consumed. While global markets were consequently formed and provided access to these new commodities that increasingly became important in the 'Old World', especially with regard to the establishment early modern consumer societies. This book brings together specialists from a range of historical fields to analyse the establishment of these commodity chains from the Americas to Europe as well as their cultural implications.

David Livingstone, the 'missionary-explorer', has attracted more commentary than nearly any other Victorian hero. Beginning in the years following his death, he soon became the subject of a major biographical tradition. Yet out of this extensive discourse, no unified image of Livingstone emerges. Rather, he has been represented in diverse ways and in a variety of socio-political contexts. Until now, no one has explored Livingstone's posthumous reputation in full. This book meets the challenge. In approaching Livingstone's complex legacy, it adopts a metabiographical perspective: in other words, this book is a biography of biographies. Rather than trying to uncover the true nature of the subject, metabiography is concerned with the malleability of biographical representation. It does not aim to uncover Livingstone's 'real' identity, but instead asks: what has he been made to mean? Crossing disciplinary boundaries, Livingstone's 'lives' will interest scholars of imperial history, postcolonialism, life-writing, travel-writing and Victorian studies. -- .

This is a study of the nature and role of science in the exploration of the Canadian Arctic. It covers the century that began with the British Royal Naval expeditions of 1818 and ended with the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-18. Professor Levere focuses on the imperialistic dimensions and nationalistic aspirations that informed arctic science, and situates its rise in the context of economic and military history of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe and North America. Accessibly written and prodigiously researched, Science and the Canadian Arctic is of interest to an audience of historians, environmental scientists and anyone interested in the Arctic.

A sweeping, authoritative history of 16th-century Spain and its legendary conquistadors, whose ambitious and morally contradictory campaigns propelled a small European kingdom to become one of the formidable empires in the world "The depth of research in this book is astonishing, but even more impressive is the analytical skill Cervantes applies. . . . [He] conveys complex arguments in delightfully simple language, and most importantly knows how to tell a good story." -The Times (London) Over the few short decades that followed Christopher Columbus's first landing in the Caribbean in 1492, Spain conquered the two most powerful civilizations of the Americas: the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru. Hernan Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, and the other explorers and soldiers that took part in these expeditions dedicated their lives to seeking political and religious glory, helping to build an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. But centuries later, these conquistadors have become the stuff of nightmares. In their own time, they were glorified as heroic adventurers, spreading Christian culture and helping to build an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. Today, they stand condemned for their cruelty and exploitation as men who decimated ancient civilizations and carried out horrific atrocities in their pursuit of gold and glory. In Conquistadores, acclaimed Mexican historian Fernando Cervantes-himself a descendent of one of the conquistadors-cuts through the layers of myth and fiction to help us better understand the context that gave rise to the conquistadors' actions. Drawing upon previously untapped primary sources that include diaries, letters, chronicles, and polemical treatises, Cervantes immerses us in the late-medieval, imperialist, religious world of 16th-century Spain, a world as unfamiliar to us as the Indigenous peoples of the New World were to the conquistadors themselves. His thought-provoking, illuminating account reframes the story of the Spanish conquest of the New World and the half-century that irrevocably altered the course of history.

Originally published in 1868, this book follows the life of Prince Henry, including chapters on the Siege of Tangier, the capture of Ceuta and the death of Prince Henry.

Pedro Menendez de Aviles (1519-1574) founded St. Augustine in 1565. His expedition was documented by his brother-in-law, Gonzalo Solis de Meras, who left a detailed and passionate account of the events leading to the establishment of America's oldest city. Until recently, the only extant version of Solis de Meras's record was one single manuscript that Eugenio Ruidiaz y Caravia transcribed in 1893, and subsequent editions and translations have always followed Ruidiaz's text. In 2012, David Arbesu discovered a more complete record: a manuscript including folios lost for centuries and, more important, excluding portions of the 1893 publication based on retellings rather than the original document. In the resulting volume, Pedro Menendez de Aviles and the Conquest of Florida, Arbesu sheds light on principal events missing from the story of St. Augustine's founding. By consulting the original chronicle, Arbesu provides readers with the definitive bilingual edition of this seminal text.

“Pam spurned conventional rewards, entrusted her dream to eight powerful huskies, and set out alone to cross the Arctic. . . . a most extraordinary journey.� —Sir Ranulph Fiennes, renowned adventurer  Eight sled dogs and one woman set out from Barrow, Alaska, to mush 2,500 miles. Alone Across the Artic chronicles this astounding expedition. For an entire year, Pam Flowers and her dogs made this epic journey across North America arctic coast. The first woman to make this trip solo, Pam endures and deals with intense blizzards, melting pack ice, and a polar bear. Yet in the midst of such danger, Pam also relishes the time alone with her beloved team. Their survival—-her survival—-hinges on that mutual trust and love. 

Learn why NASA astronaut Mike Collins calls this extraordinary space race story "the best book on Apollo" this inspiring and intimate ode to ingenuity celebrates one of the most daring feats in human history. When the alarm went off forty thousand feet above the moon's surface, both astronauts looked down at the computer to see 1202 flashing on the readout. Neither of them knew what it meant, and time was running out . . . On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. One of the world's greatest technological achievements -- and a triumph of the American spirit -- the Apollo 11 mission was a mammoth undertaking involving more than 410,000 men and women dedicated to winning the space race against the Soviets. Set amid the tensions and upheaval of the sixties and the Cold War, Shoot for the Moon is a gripping account of the dangers, the challenges, and the sheer determination that defined not only Apollo 11, but also the Mercury and Gemini missions that came before it. From the shock of Sputnik and the heart-stopping final minutes of John Glenn's Mercury flight to the deadly whirligig of Gemini 8, the doomed Apollo 1 mission, and that perilous landing on the Sea of Tranquility -- when the entire world held its breath while Armstrong and Aldrin battled computer alarms, low fuel, and other problems -- James Donovan tells the whole story. Both sweeping and intimate, Shoot for the Moon is "a powerfully written and irresistible celebration" of one of humankind's most extraordinary accomplishments (Booklist, starred review).

In 1845, British explorer Sir John Franklin set out on a voyage to find the North-West Passage - the sea route linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. The expedition was expected to complete its mission within three years and return home in triumph but the two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, and the 129 men aboard them disappeared in the Arctic. The last Europeans to see them alive were the crews of two whaling ships in Baffin Bay in July 1845, just before they entered the labyrinth of the Arctic Archipelago. The loss of this British hero and his crew, and the many rescue expeditions and searches that followed, captured the public imagination, but the mystery surrounding the expedition's fate only deepened as more clues were found. How did Franklin's final expedition end in tragedy? What happened to the crew? The thrilling discoveries in the Arctic of the wrecks of Erebus in 2014 and Terror in 2016 have brought the events of 170 years ago into sharp focus and excited new interest in the Franklin expedition. This richly illustrated book is an essential guide to this story of heroism, endurance, tragedy and dark desperation.

Lowell Thomas Jr. is a famed Alaskan who made his mark as a Bush pilot and by serving in state government, but who also has had a lifetime’s worth of adventures that have taken him around the world. Thomas, now eighty-nine, and living in Anchorage, is the son of one of the most widely known Americans of the twentieth century, and his connection to Lowell Thomas Sr. (1892-1981) enabled him to jump-start his life of adventure at a very early age. From the time he was fifteen, Lowell Thomas Jr. has been involved in a series of journeys that have seen him cross paths with many famous lives and take part in many historic events.

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879) is a work of travel literature by British explorer Isabella Bird. Adventurous from a young age, Bird gained a reputation as a writer and photographer interested in nature and the stories and cultures of people around the world. A bestselling author and the first woman inducted into the Royal Geographical Society, Bird is recognized today as a pioneering woman whose contributions to travel writing, exploration, and philanthropy are immeasurable. In 1872-after a year of sailing from Britain to Australia and Hawaii-Isabella Bird journeyed by boat to San Francisco before making her way over land through California and Wyoming to the Colorado Territory. There, she befriended an outdoorsman named Rocky Mountain Jim, who guided her throughout the vast wilderness of Colorado and accompanied her during a journey of over 800 miles. Traveling on foot and on horseback-Bird was an experienced and skillful rider-the two formed a curious but formidable pair, eventually reaching the 14,259 foot (4346 m) summit of Longs Peak, making Bird one of the first women to accomplish the feat. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, Bird's most iconic work, was a bestseller upon publication, and has since inspired generations of readers. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Isabella Bird's A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains is a classic of American literature and travel writing reimagined for modern readers.