The best
Arctic & Antarctica History books:
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The best of Arctic & Antarctica History books by number of unique Reddit comments:
Top Reddit reviews mentioning Arctic & Antarctica History books:
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
or
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Both well worth the read, the first has lots of pictures salvaged from the expedition.
Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore will answer your question in excruciating detail. Mr. Hughes was perhaps the 20th century's most highly accomplished art critic. He was also a native Australian. The book is a very good non-academic history of Australia's settlement by England. At the risk of stating the obvious, the criminals who were sent to Australia had very bleak existences to put it mildly. Note that most of the criminals were sent to Australia for petty offenses.
If you are looking specifically at the history of the penal colonies, try Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore. I read it some time ago and enjoyed it quite a bit.
N.B. Hughes is an Aussie and no fan of the British.
As an addendum to this, I would strongly recommend the book <em>Batavia’s Graveyard: The true story of the mad heretic who led history’s bloodiest mutiny</em> by Mike Dash also known as u/mikedash for a very engaging and comprehensive academic book about this incident and the people involved in it.
On that same note, Lansing's The Endurance (about Shackleton's attempted voyage to the South Pole and absolutely miraculous escape from what would have or should have been certain death) is equally amazing for the real-life adventure readers.
... a supply of seal blubber and sugar cubes can get you through till tuesday.
I recommend a copy of Endurance as reading while waiting for your snow to melt.
Ernest Shackleton’s family motto was, “By endurance, we conquer”. And such is all of life. Some days I have to remind myself of that. (Unrelated to investing.)
Another Antarctic explorer, Sir Raymond Priestley said of his three best known contemporaries: “For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”
Still one of the best books I’ve read:
So many...
One of my favorite reads of all time, though, is "The Endurance" by Alfred Lansiing.
A non-fictional account of an amazing heroic story of survival, exploration and leadership in the Antarctic in the golden age of exploration of the poles. What they did, when they did it, with the technology they had at the time - it's truly unbelievable. A must read:
In the same genre, Aspley Cherry Gerard's "The Worst Journey in the World" is a long but incredible story of Antarctic exploration written by a survivor academician that was actually there.
The Worst Journey in the World - Wikipedia
Exploration and adventure non-fiction is a powerful genre for me, easily more impactful than even the best fiction (and I'm a big fan of that too!) because reality gives it that more powerful punch.
The extreme conditions of the arctic and Antarctic race to the poles are pretty amazing tales of human perseverance and bravery when you consider the conditions, the challenge, and the capabilities of human technology at the time these almost foolhardy men accomplished it.
Dobro pitanje, hvala. Uzeh knjižicu kojom sam bila oduševljena kao tinejdžerka, "Almodovarova teorema", od Antoni Kazas Rosa. Prevedena je samo na nekolicinu jezika, francuski, turski i srpski koliko znam, nešto tako. Na engleskom je nema.
Sećam se da sam u njoj saznala za Aphex Twin, i da mi je svaka rečenica bila toliko pitka i značajna da sam mislila bih je mogla istetovirati na sebe.
Fast forward, nisam mogla ni da je završim, mislim da sam je prerasla ili sam samo predugo u apatiji za svu tu romantiku. Ali preporučujem je možda za jedno čitanje.
Sad sam počela da čitam Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World, da razumem malo bolje svet. Spoiler: Kosovo je već u predgovoru.
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A ti?
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Highly recommend this book by Caroline Alexander. Excellent writing and gorgeous book all around with the Hurley photos.
https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Legendary-Antarctic-Expedition/dp/0375404031
She subsequently wrote a book about Bligh and the Bounty.
Taliban had mountains that they entrenched themselves in. See the book Prisoners of Geography Afghanistan is essentially a giant valley and so even the US marines aiding there were at a significant disadvantage, coupled with the corruption within the Afgani military as well as religious intimidation within their ranks by the Taliban.
Al shabaab doesn't appear to have a similar geopolitical advantage.
Definitely start with Endurance by Alfred Lansing
It’s the story of Ernest Shackleton’s voyage to Antarctica in his ship Endurance
4.8 star rating from almost 9000 readers.
It’s an incredible read. The next family member will have a hard act to follow
PS. There are many versions of this historical voyage, make sure you choose the one by Lansing. His research was outstanding.
Many many good books on Shackleton, but I was transfixed by one about a an explorer from a couple decades earlier - George DeLong, who attempted to find the northern passage and encountered a very similar, unbelievable, expedition in the arctic.
Book is called In the Kingdom of Ice. https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Ice-Terrible-Voyage-Jeannette/dp/0307946916
Buying a commodity is not anything remotely close to the same as controlling its production. It isn't about making sure his people are fed. It is about controlling the production because if he does then he has the world by the balls. If Putin has almost a quarter of the global corn trade and almost 30% of the world's wheat he can use that as a weapon whenever he chooses. But, like I said, it isn't just about resources.
And why is Ukraine so important from a land/geopolitical perspective? The Carpathian mountains on the western side of the country are much easier to defend than the plains of eastern Ukraine. If NATO is allowed into Ukraine NATO (aka the US) is within spitting distance of the majority of Russia's grain and oil production and all that is between NATO and Russia is an open plain that can easily be moved across. On the contrary, if Russia takes Ukraine then the only path into Russia from a NATO country is through a small, easily defendable border with Poland to Ukraine's northwest, through the buffer state of Belarus, or through Lithuania/Latvia/Estonia. Considering Russia's is Kaliningrad immediately south of those 3 states they are not a very strong threat since Russia could easily cut them off from the rest of Europe. There is an interesting book about this exact topic and offers great insight into the geopolitics that have shaped our world.
https://www.amazon.com/Prisoners-Geography-Explain-Everything-Politics/dp/1501121472
Endurance by Alfred Lansing - tells the true story of Ernest Shackleton's 1916 South Pole expedition. I read this a few years ago when going through a rough patch at work, put it all into perspective.
Was it based on a true story? It sounds a lot like the Shackleton mission, and I found a book called Endurance that is based on it.
If you like that, you'll enjoy Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. It's the story of an expedition to the Antarctica in 1914. The ship was crushed by ice and the crew had to travel across the frozen ocean to the nearest civilization outpost. The book is based on the crew's journals.
I think they mean this bookthat puts forward the idea that the Chinese were the first outsiders to arrive in the America's.
Its a bad book but entertaining read.
If you're thinking about this question you might enjoy the book Endurance which is the true story of Shackleton's expedition to the South Pole. The food issue plays a major role.
https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing/dp/0465062881
Good stuff!
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall is a great read.
Geopolitical Futures a good website that has good analysis on present global situations/conflicts.
The hardcover edition is amazing!
https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Legendary-Antarctic-Expedition/dp/0375404031
But I haven't tried any of the audiobook versions.
The hardcover edition is amazing!
https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Legendary-Antarctic-Expedition/dp/0375404031
But I haven't tried any of the audiobook versions.
The hardcover edition is amazing!
https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Legendary-Antarctic-Expedition/dp/0375404031
But I haven't tried any of the audiobook versions.
The hardcover edition is amazing!
https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Legendary-Antarctic-Expedition/dp/0375404031
But I haven't tried any of the audiobook versions.
The hardcover edition is amazing!
https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Legendary-Antarctic-Expedition/dp/0375404031
But I haven't tried any of the audiobook versions.
I don't know who the hell Jared Diamond is, but I get most of my information about this from Tim Marshall.
https://www.amazon.com/Prisoners-Geography-Explain-Everything-Politics/dp/1501121472
Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny by Mike Dash
Check out the reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. It's definitely more than a bloody mutiny story.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0609807161/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1
That nut Graham Hancock wrote a couple of books peddling that theory. Interesting read, but about as fact based as The DaVinci Code.