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Antarctic Destinies: Scott, Shackleton, and the Changing Face of Heroism |  | Author: Stephanie L. Barczewski
Publisher: Continuum
List Price: $21.95
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as of 11/22/2009 00:57 CST details
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Seller: sbd-
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 655430
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 390
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 5.9 x 1.4
ISBN: 0826445624
Dewey Decimal Number: 919.8904092241
EAN: 9780826445629
ASIN: 0826445624
Publication Date: June 9, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Presenting a study of the Antarctic explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton as well as their most heroic expeditions, the author looks in detail at just how and why their individual reputations have evolved over the course of the last century. This book covers the two most famous expeditions of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition of 1910-12 and Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition of 1914-16. For decades after his tragic death on the return journey from the South Pole, to which he had been beaten by five weeks by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, Scott was regarded as a saint-like figure with an unassailable reputation born from his heroic martyrdom in the frozen wastes of the Antarctic.In recent years, however, Scott has attracted some of the most intense criticism any explorer has ever received. Shackleton's reputation, meanwhile, has followed a reverse trajectory. Although his achievements were always appreciated, they were never celebrated with nearly the same degree of adulation that traditionally surrounded Scott. Today, Scott and Shackleton occupy very different places in the polar pantheon of British heroes. Stephanie Barczewski explores the evolution of their reputations and finds it has little to do with new discoveries regarding their lives and characters, but far more to do with broader cultural changes and changes in conceptions of heroism in Britain and the United States.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Any general-interest library strong in exploration history and Antarctic history in general will find this invaluable. May 3, 2008
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
ANTARCTIC DESTINIES: SCOTT, SHACKLETON AND THE CHANGING FACE OF HEROISM follows the changing reputations and historical discovers of three early explorers of the Antarctic and their entwined lives and objectives. The idea of the heroic explorer and their special challenges comes to life in chapters that reveal their changing images, their lives, and how and why their reputations have changed in the literature. Any general-interest library strong in exploration history and Antarctic history in general will find this invaluable.
Authoritative account April 6, 2008
Richard Reaney (Napier - New Zealand)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
An authoritative and well researched review. The author has used her literary skills with inteligence and there is evidence of a degree of passion for her subject. I have enjoyed the book immensely.
I don't consider this a book for the novice. One needs a reasonable understanding of Antarctic exploration and history to appreciate the finer points encountered.
There is a bias towards Scott in her comparisons, but the author makes her position clear from the outset;in fact her reason for writing the account.
I am full of admiration for her exhaustive research on the achievements of the two explorers and their life and times. I have found the account a wonderful addition to my Antarctic Library and it is already being used as a source of reference to other work.
There some factual errors in the text and in one photo along with some typographical errors, which are disappointing in such an authoritative review, but do not detract from the substance of the theme.
I have pleasure in recommending this work. I believe all 'Antarcticans' would enjoy this account which offers a catalyst to 'polarise' ones views on the destinies of these two explorers.
 Strange hybrid March 26, 2008
Melissa L. Shogren (Redmond, WA USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Meant for both Heroic Age of Polar Exploration novices and experts, Antarctic Destinies ultimately proves rather disappointing for both. The author did an outstanding job of reading and collecting popular literature about her subject, however, there is too much basic background on Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton for those who are polar afficionados, and too much detail about how these men were viewed in their day and ours for the reader who is unfamiliar with the countless books written on Scott and Shackleton.
For the fan of polar exploration, it is interesting to read about the rise and fall of Scott, and the fall and rise of Shackleton. However, the author makes promises she does not keep. Throughout the book, there are hints that she will discuss why Shackleton's reputation as an almost superhuman leader of men in tight situations is overblown. The author, however, does not get around to disputing Shackleton's reputation until the Epilogue, and then only mentions briefly the diaries of two of Shackleton's men, James Wordie and Leonard Hussey. She does discuss very briefly the Ross Sea Party fiasco, but Shackleton was not directly involved in leading those men. Instead, she drops comments like "It does not matter that much of this is hyperbole (praise from a modern British writer about Shackleton)at best and utter falsehood at worst; what matters is that Moore, like her readers, believes that it is true, because that is the Shacklton she imagines, and wants to imagine." There is then no discussion about what makes it either hyperbole or why the writer is lying.
Two final notes: there are a few typographical errors with words either left out or misused, and it would have been nice to have a bibliography of the many works the author read in preparation. Instead, the reader is left to comb the very copious notes.
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