After the Map
After the Map

Author: William Rankin

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-07-01

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 022633953X

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For most of the twentieth century, maps were indispensable. They were how governments understood, managed, and defended their territory, and during the two world wars they were produced by the hundreds of millions. Cartographers and journalists predicted the dawning of a “map-minded age,” where increasingly state-of-the-art maps would become everyday tools. By the century’s end, however, there had been decisive shift in mapping practices, as the dominant methods of land surveying and print publication were increasingly displaced by electronic navigation systems. In After the Map, William Rankin argues that although this shift did not render traditional maps obsolete, it did radically change our experience of geographic knowledge, from the God’s-eye view of the map to the embedded subjectivity of GPS. Likewise, older concerns with geographic truth and objectivity have been upstaged by a new emphasis on simplicity, reliability, and convenience. After the Map shows how this change in geographic perspective is ultimately a transformation of the nature of territory, both social and political.

An Empire of Ice
An Empire of Ice

Author: Edward J. Larson

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2011-05-31

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0300154089

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Examines the pioneering Antarctic expeditions of the early twentieth century within the context of a larger scientific, social, and geopolitical context.

Geographies of Knowledge
Geographies of Knowledge

Author: Robert J. Mayhew

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2020-08-18

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1421438550

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A path-breaking exploration of how space, place, and scale influenced the production and circulation of scientific knowledge in the nineteenth century. Over the past twenty years, scholars have increasingly questioned not just historical presumptions about the putative rise of modern science during the long nineteenth century but also the geographical contexts for and variability of science during the era. In Geographies of Knowledge, an internationally distinguished array of historians and geographers examine the spatialization of science in the period, tracing the ways in which scale and space are crucial to understanding the production, dissemination, and reception of scientific knowledge in the nineteenth century. Engaging with and extending the influential work of David Livingstone and others on science's spatial dimensions, the book touches on themes of empire, gender, religion, Darwinism, and much more. In exploring the practice of science across four continents, these essays illuminate the importance of geographical perspectives to the study of science and knowledge, and how these ideas made and contested locally could travel the globe. Dealing with everything from the local spaces of the Surrey countryside to the global negotiations that proposed a single prime meridian, from imperial knowledge creation and exploration in Burma, India, and Africa to studies of metropolitan scientific-cum-theological tussles in Belfast and in Confederate America, Geographies of Knowledge outlines an interdisciplinary agenda for the study of science as geographically situated sets of practices in the era of its modern disciplinary construction. More than that, it outlines new possibilities for all those interested in knowledge's spatial characteristics in other periods. Contributors: John A. Agnew, Vinita Damodaran, Diarmid A. Finnegan, Nuala C. Johnson, Dane Kennedy, Robert J. Mayhew, Mark Noll, Ronald L. Numbers, Nicolaas Rupke, Yvonne Sherratt, Charles W. J. Withers

The Return of the South Pole Sled Dogs
The Return of the South Pole Sled Dogs

Author: Mary R. Tahan

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-03-29

Total Pages: 467

ISBN-13: 3030651134

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This book documents the return of the surviving sled dogs of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition of 1910–1912 from Antarctica, where they had helped Roald Amundsen become the first human to reach the South Pole. This book is the sequel to the highly acclaimed Roald Amundsen’s Sled Dogs: The Sledge Dogs Who Helped Discover the South Pole. It chronicles how the sled dogs were used internationally to further promote the expedition’s great achievement and follows some of the dogs as they undertake subsequent expeditions – with Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911–1914, which made scientific discoveries, and with Arve Staxrud’s Norwegian Arctic Rescue Mission of 1913, which saved members of the Herbert Schröder-Stranz German Arctic Expedition. The book tracks the remaining 39 sled dogs to their next challenging adventures and their final destinations in Argentina, Norway, Antarctica, and Australia. Like its predecessor, the book portrays how Amundsen continued to utilize the Polar dogs – both in their lives and in their deaths – to propel his career and solidify his expedition's image.

Roald Amundsen’s Sled Dogs
Roald Amundsen’s Sled Dogs

Author: Mary R. Tahan

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-01-04

Total Pages: 628

ISBN-13: 3030026922

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This book is an analytical account of how Roald Amundsen used sledge dogs to discover the South Pole in 1911, and is the first to name and identify all 116 Polar dogs who were part of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition of 1910–1912. The book traces the dogs from their origins in Greenland to Antarctica and beyond, and presents the author’s findings regarding which of the dogs actually reached the South Pole, and which ones returned. Using crewmember diaries, reports, and written correspondence, the book explores the strategy, methodology, and personal insights of the explorer and his crew in employing canines to achieve their goal, as well as documents the controversy and internal dynamics involved in this historic discovery. It breaks ground in presenting the entire story of how the South Pole was truly discovered using animals, and how deep and profound the differences of perception were regarding the use of canines for exploration. This historic tale sheds light on Antarctic exploration history and the human-nature relationship. It gives recognition to the significant role that animals played in this important part of history.