The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American CultureIn the late 1800s, “Arctic Fever” swept across the nation as dozens of American expeditions sailed north to the Arctic to find a sea route to Asia and, ultimately, to stand at the North Pole. Few of these missions were successful, and many men lost their lives en route. Yet failure did little to dampen the enthusiasm of new explorers or the crowds at home that cheered them on. Arctic exploration, Michael F. Robinson argues, was an activity that unfolded in America as much as it did in the wintry hinterland. Paying particular attention to the perils facing explorers at home, The Coldest Crucible examines their struggles to build support for the expeditions before departure, defend their claims upon their return, and cast themselves as men worthy of the nation’s full attention. In so doing, this book paints a new portrait of polar voyagers, one that removes them from the icy backdrop of the Arctic and sets them within the tempests of American cultural life. With chronological chapters featuring emblematic Arctic explorers—including Elisha Kent Kane, Charles Hall, and Robert Peary—The Coldest Crucible reveals why the North Pole, a region so geographically removed from Americans, became an iconic destination for discovery. |
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Contents
1 | |
1 Building an Arctic Tradition | 15 |
2 A Man of Science and Humanity | 31 |
3 An Arctic Divided | 55 |
4 Dying Like Men | 83 |
5 The New Machines | 107 |
6 Savage Campaigns | 133 |
Conclusion | 159 |
Notes | 165 |
Bibliography | 181 |
Index | 199 |
Other editions - View all
The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture Michael F. Robinson No preview available - 2014 |
The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture Michael F. Robinson No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
Adolphus Greely Airship American Geographical Society Arctic Expedition Arctic exploration Arctic fever Arctic Seas back home British Bryce Cape Sabine century Charles Hall Chicago civilized coast Congress controversy Cook and Peary Cook's crew critics discovery Elisha Kent Kane elites Eskimos eulogists Franklin Expedition Frederick Cook Greely expedition Greely Papers Greely's Greenland Grinnell Expedition Hall's Hayes Hayes's Henry History interest Isaac Hayes Jeannette expedition Journal Kane's lectures Literary Digest Littell's Living Age manly character mission narrative National Geographic newspapers North Pole open polar sea pack ice patrons Peary Papers Peary's Philadelphia Polar Expedition polar exploration popular audiences popular press praised promote published quoted reaching the North readers reported rescue Robert Peary role Roosevelt sailed savage scandal scientific community scientists September 1909 ship Sir John Franklin sledges Smith Sound Smithsonian Institution story Tragic Shores voyage Washington Wellman wrote York Herald
Popular passages
Page 186 - On the Relative Intensity of the Heat and Light of the Sun upon Different Latitudes of the Earth.
Page 185 - Access to an open Polar Sea, in connection with the search after Sir John Franklin, and his Companions.
Page 64 - The pulsations of my own heart are alone heard in the great void; and as the blood courses through the sensitive organization of the ear, I am oppressed as with discordant sounds. Silence has ceased to be negative. It has become endowed with positive attributes. I seem to hear and see and feel it. It stands forth as a frightful spectre, filling the mind with the overpowering consciousness of universal death, — proclaiming the end of all things, and heralding the everlasting future. Its presence...
Page 186 - THE TEACHER'S ASSISTANT; or Hints and Methods in School Discipline and Instruction : being a series of familiar Letters 10 one entering upon the Teacher's work. By CHARLES NORTHEND, AM, author of The Teacher and Parent, etc.
Page 82 - " Yes," said Greely in a faint, broken voice, hesitating and shuffling with his words, " Yes — seven of us left — here we are — dying — like men. Did what I came to do — beat the best record.
Page 54 - From the mutilated state of many of the corpses and the contents of the kettles it is evident that our wretched countrymen had been driven to the last resource — cannibalism — as a means of prolonging existence.
Page 113 - ... the whole thing. The balloonist becomes an explorer. Say you are a young man who would like to roam a little ; you want adventures ; you want to penetrate the unknown. But you are tied down at home by family, business, whatnot. Well, you take to ballooning. At noon you have luncheon with your family. At two o'clock you ascend. Fifteen minutes later you are no longer a commonplace denizen of the easy-going town — you are an adventurer into the unknown, an explorer as surely as any who melt in...
Page 82 - The man made no answer, staring at him vacantly. " Who are you ? " again. One of the men spoke up : " That's the Major— Major Greely.
Page 185 - The United States Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin. A Personal Narrative.
Page 37 - They saw evidences of his having gone northward, for sledge tracks in that direction were, visible. It is the opinion of Dr. Kane that, on the breaking up of the ice, in the spring, Sir John passed northward with his ships through Wellington Channel, into the great Polar basin, and that he did not return. This, too, is the opinion of Captain Penny...