A Fabulous Kingdom: The Exploration of the Arctic [Hardcover]

Charles Officer (Author), Jake Page (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 2001

Inconstant and forbidding, the arctic lured misguided voyagers into the cold for centuries--pushing them beyond the limits of their knowledge, technology, and stamina. A Fabulous Kingdom: Tales of the Arctic charts these quests and the eventual race for the North Pole in unprecedented detail, chronicling the lives and misconceptions that would eventually throw light on this "magical realm" of sunless winters.
Setting the scene with an explanation of the arctic region's geography, geology, and climate, the authors present the physical and ideological barriers that faced early sailors traveling into the uncharted arctic realm. They then follow the explorers and the evolution of the arctic mission, from the early journeys of Viking Ottar, who rounded the North Cape ca. 870, to northern European expeditions in search of a Northwest or Northeast passage to the riches of sixteenth century Asia. The progressive exploits and findings of Martin Frobisher, John Davis, Henry Hudson, and William Edward Parry fueled the public's fascination with this new world of ice. Yet with the ill-fated voyage of Sir John Franklin, nations abandoned their belief in the arctic as the way to wealth. Henceforth, it would be private funding and personal motives that would lead English, Scandinavian, and American men with a redefined purpose: to reach the North Pole.
With a fascinating account of nineteenth and twentieth century exploration and the longstanding myth of an open polar sea, the authors reconsider the achievements of the conventional arctic pioneers--Frederick Cook, Robert Peary, and Richard Bird. Moreover, they consider the consequences and rewards of human ambition and our perilous desire to conquer the unknown.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Travelers from more southerly climes have been trying to unlock the secrets of the far north for centuries, a quest that continues to the present day and that has given birth to countless books.

In A Fabulous Kingdom, a strong addition to that library, engineering scholar Charles Officer and science writer Jake Page trace the history of Arctic exploration to its origins in antiquity, when Greek and Roman travelers returned home with tales of a "monster-bearing Ocean" full of ice islands, strange animals, and terrifying astronomical phenomena. Those tales were often dismissed, even then, as fabrications of the first order, but they remained current centuries later, when European explorers sought to chart the earth on spherical maps that would point a course to Asia by way of the fabled Northwest Passage. Armed with modern scientific equipment but not much more solid information than their ancient counterparts, 19th-century explorers such as Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (who is little known outside his native Sweden but, Officer and Page write, was the John Glenn of his day) and the ill-fated Charles Francis Hall (whose Polaris expedition is the subject of two recent books but is more effectively summarized here) helped effect the discovery of that sea route, but at the cost of hundreds of lives.

Today, write the authors, "the greatest interest in the Arctic is as a vital region for environmental research," bringing still more travelers to the distant north. They are returning with stories, too, and Officer and Page end their well-written survey with those explorers' warnings that the Arctic and its peoples merit both protection and respect. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly

The forbidding Arctic has long been a subject of fascination to explorers, both actual and armchair, and to writers documenting its exploration. Unfortunately, Officer, an engineering professor at Dartmouth, and Page, a science writer (co-authors of Tales of the Earth: Paroxysms and Perturbations of the Blue Planet), don't add much to the subject by way of excitement. They do, however, provide ample, well-researched detail as they examine the Arctic and chronicle the explorations of a number of 19th- and 20th-century expeditions to the region. The opening chapter provides a good starting point with an in-depth look at Arctic weather and its impact on explorers. The sun, for instance, cannot be used to measure time, because its relative elevation to the land doesn't change. Subsequent chapters discuss numerous specific expeditions, including those of Robert Peary, William Edward Parry and Martin Frobisher. The various groups faced similar hurdles on their treacherous journeys and shared an astonishing bravery and resilience in the face of danger, illness and death. But despite deaths by scurvy, chance meetings on the ice and the almost unnatural allure of the Arctic for these explorers, the book becomes tedious. One expedition melds into another, and explicit details regarding the routes and daily routines accumulate in the authors' unimaginative writing. These minutiae will be important to scholars, but the book will be more redundant than enjoyable for the lay reader, despite its extraordinary subject. Illus. and photos.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195123824
• ISBN-13: 978-0195123821
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,450,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Solid Overview of Arctic Exploration, March 7, 2009

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Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Fabulous Kingdom: The Exploration of the Arctic (Hardcover)

The last great terrestrial frontiers were the poles and under the sea. Both have inspired their share of scientists, explorers, adventurers, glory-hunters, and wealth-seekers. When it comes to the northland of the Arctic, this is especially true and "A Fabulous Kingdom" is a well-written breathless survey of how Western Civilization has approached the frozen north. It starts in antiquity but quickly moves into the nineteenth century when a succession of northern European powers began concerted efforts to explore the region. They did not do it for scientific purposes, although such knowledge did result, but for practical geographical and economic purposes.

The quest for a Northwest Passage, a westward water route from Europe to Asia in the far north, prompted considerable activity. Ironically, because of global warming this is now beginning to open up with Arctic sea ice melting. Sought for centuries by various European nations as a possible trading route, only in 1903-1906 was it finally navigated by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Even so, he found that the Arctic icepack prevented regular marine operations. That might be to the good since contested claims of sovereignty could have sparked international crisis had there been navigable waterways. For more than a century British, American, and Scandinavian explorers sought the Northwest Passage through Canada's northern archipelago and the North Pole. Romance motivated that effort, but poor planning and administrative bungling torpedoed much of it. The British Admiralty, especially, sent a succession of failed missions in search of the Northwest Passage. At a remarkable level the arrogance and romance of Western Civilization combined for more than a century of fruitless search for a presumed economic trade route that did not exist. This book provides a good summary of this effort.

It also discusses more recent exploration, including the great "race" to the North Pole, especially the cantankerous and contravening efforts of Frederick Cook and Robert Peary for bragging rights in being the first to reach the North Pole. Who was first, no one knows but it looks increasingly like neither reached it, the position of the authors of "A Fabulous Kingdom." The debate has been laced with vitriol over the years. Although Peary received great acclamation in his lifetime for his polar exploit, most current professionals as reflected in this work view the claims of both Peary and Cook to have reached the North Pole with skepticism. More than a century after the controversy first erupted it seems that neither claim hold up well. Chapter 9, "Amateurs, Pros, and Cons," offers a witty discussion of this subject.

As a general introduction to the history of the Arctic, "A Fabulous Kingdom" is excellent. It hits the high points and offers a usable, accessible narrative of a truly fascinating region and the people attracted to it.