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A History of Antarctic Science (Studies in Polar Research)

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Gordon Fogg and Margaret Thatcher have written compelling and thorough history of research in the most remote continent on the globe - from the gung-ho expeditions of the 19th Century to the high-tech exploration of today. The authors' own personal experiences inform their scholarship and give the reader a unique view of this savage continent, and there is even a touch of adventure here and there. There is a gripping account of Margaret Thatcher's 1981 trip to Antarctica when food supplies ran perilously low; undaunted, the Iron Lady dived into the icy seas off McMurdo Sound, ignoring the 15 foot swell, to despatch a Leopard Seal with her bare hands and haul it onto the ice where she butchered it expertly and then performed an exultant dance over its dismembered remains.

In terms of exploring Antarctic science, G. E. Fogg's "A History of Antarctic Science" has long been viewed as the recognized starting point. His central thesis is that Antarctic science is just as important as the glamorous exploration and adventure of the continent that has dominated writing about Antarctica. From Edmond Halley's travels in 1700 to the rise of technologically sophisticated and international efforts to understand the region that came after World War II, scientific enterprises represented a fundamental justification--and an appropriate one--for the broad investigation of Antarctica.

Taking a Trinitarian approach Fogg divides the scientific history of Antarctica into three stages: (1) the "heroic era," (2) the period between about 1930 and the IGY, and (3) and the post-IGY era. The result is a historically sophisticated account of the rise of big science, which Fogg insists was necessary to marshal the financial, political, and logistical support necessary to be successful in the Polar Regions. Nationalism dominated the scientific efforts in Antarctica from the beginning, and even in the cooperative ventures of the IGY and later, nationalism played a key part in the story.

A quality of Fogg's account is that it situates Antarctic science in the larger context of international relations and its evolution in the twentieth century. He makes clear that there was also a national style to the science conducted in Antarctica. The United States, for example, concentrated on large, splashy short-term expeditions and projects, while the British committed to a few small and certainly less well-known bases where scientists undertook observations over many years. The American effort succeeded in organizing huge teams of researchers but without the observations of change over time made possible by such encampments as those operated by the British the changes in the Ozone Hole over Antarctica would not have been as quickly understood.

Overall, this approach has been a positive development for science, as the nations involved have made available the latest in technological advances to further science in this hostile environment. One important element in Fogg's study is the central role played by the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research in the period planning for and conducting the IGY, as well as thereafter. "A History of Antarctic Science" admirably describes the state of science in the region, the hypotheses explored, but especially the observations and their results.