|
List Price: $15.95Amazon.com's Price: $10.85 You Save: $5.10 (32%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Now!
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 919.8904
EAN: 9780375754746
ISBN: 0375754741
Label: Modern Library
Manufacturer: Modern Library
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 640
Publication Date: September 07, 1999
Publisher: Modern Library
Release Date: September 07, 1999
Sales Rank: 67221
Studio: Modern Library
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the South Pole was the most coveted prize in the fiercely nationalistic modern age of exploration. In the brilliant dual biography, the award-winning writer Roland Huntford re-examines every detail of the great race to the South Pole between Britain's Robert Scott and Norway's Roald Amundsen. Scott, who dies along with four of his men only eleven miles from his next cache of supplies, became Britain's beloved failure, while Amundsen, who not only beat Scott to the Pole but returned alive, was largely forgotten. This account of their race is a gripping, highly readable history that captures the driving ambitions of the era and the complex, often deeply flawed men who were charged with carrying them out. THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH is the first of Huntford's masterly trilogy of polar biographies. It is also the only work on the subject in the English language based on the original Norwegian sources, to which Huntford returned to revise and update this edition.
Amazon.com Review:
On December 14, 1911, the classical age of polar exploration ended when Norway's Roald Amundsen conquered the South Pole. His competitor for the prize, Britain's Robert Scott, arrived one month later--but died on the return with four of his men only 11 miles from their next cache of supplies. But it was Scott, ironically, who became the legend, Britain's heroic failure, "a monument to sheer ambition and bull-headed persistence. His achievement was to perpetuate the romantic myth of the explorer as martyr, and ... to glorify suffering and self-sacrifice as ends in themselves." The world promptly forgot about Amundsen.
Biographer Ronald Huntford's attempt to restore Amundsen to glory, first published in 1979 under the title Scott and Amundsen, has been thawed as part of the Modern Library Exploration series, captained by Jon Krakauer (of Into Thin Air fame). The Last Place on Earth is a complex and fascinating account of the race for this last great terrestrial goal, and it's pointedly geared toward demythologizing Scott. Though this was the age of the amateur explorer, Amundsen was a professional: he left little to chance, apprenticed with Eskimos, and obsessed over every detail. While Scott clung fast to the British rule of "No skis, no dogs," Amundsen understood that both were vital to survival, and they clearly won him the Pole.
Amundsen in Huntford's view is the "last great Viking" and Scott his bungling opposite: "stupid ... recklessly incompetent," and irresponsible in the extreme--failings that cost him and his teammates their lives. Yet for all of Scott's real or exaggerated faults, he understood far better than Amundsen the power of a well-crafted sentence. Scott's diaries were recovered and widely published, and if the world insisted on lionizing Scott, it was partly because he told a better story. Huntford's bias aside, it's clear that both Scott and Amundsen were valiant and deeply flawed. "Scott ... had set out to be an heroic example. Amundsen merely wanted to be first at the pole. Both had their prayers answered." --Svenja Soldovieri
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This book is so good and so changed the hero worship apologist views of Scott that, all by itself, it spawned a whole set of NEW apologist rebuttals. Some of these books just can't accept the truth, and perhaps the only one that deserves a response is the work by Susan Solomon, a meteorologist, who contends that Scott may have made errors, but was basically the victim of "bad weather".
First, it's entirely unsurprising to expect a certain amount of bad weather at the South Pole(!), but ... Read More
Rating: -
Stellar story that was painstakenly researched. This is the kind of book that inspires one to take a trip to Antarctica - or read everything available about polar exploration. Nansen, Shakleton, Scott and the mighty Amundsen are not just interesting characters - they are Goliaths of exploration who braved the elements with panache and bravery second to none. Excellent read, try to stay warm while doing it.
Rating:  -
Someone who is not British, when encountering this book or the magnificent television series which was based on it, may not understand the "historical baggage" that weighed on Huntford's attitude towards the two protagonists of the story, Scott and Amundsen. Britain has a long history of having an intelligentsia that is either jingoistic/chauvinistic on the one hand, or self-hating on the other. With the break-up of the British Empire in the post-Second World War period, the self-hating sector grew ... Read More
Rating: -
I saw a program on PBS about Amundsen and the Northwest Passage and decided I wanted to know more so I bought this book. Much has already been said and thus doesn't need repeating. If you hold to the hero status of Scott then you are apt to be severely disappointed. He does NOT fair well in the cold light of history. Amundsen comes across as someone who was at the peak of his game and was just better at this sort of thing.
One of the best books I've read in a LONG time. Well worth the ... Read More
Rating:  -
There are simply too many errors in this book to state here. I can only suggest that the reader look at the notes at the end of the book. Huntford derives almost all of his negative comments from two or three people on Scott's expeditions. Why are so few of the comments collected from hundreds of men who loved and supported Scott. I'd hate to have my life judged before the world by the few people I've pissed off out of the many I've known. And just a note in passing---the Markham diary or jornal he ... Read More
Television Show
Collectibles
Movie Searches
|
|
|
Search for posters,
art prints, photos, collectables, merchandise, toys, t-shirts
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Join the Nielsen//NetRatings Research Panel and you could win a new car, a dream vacation, a dream home makeover or $50,000 Cash!
TV Guide
Program listings, celebrity profiles, industry
gossip, movie reviews, puzzle.
More
Entertainment
& TV Magazines
This site is
Hosted
by Bluehost
Read
my Bluehost Review
Original Superhero & other designs for t-shirts, bumper
stickers, prints, mugs, and other cool merchandise. |
|
