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juushikaTitle: Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night
Author: Julian Sancton
Published: Crown, 2021
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 355
Total Page Count: 535,505
Text Number: 1962
Read Because: this cold boys reading list, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The Belgica of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition inaugurated the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, and was the first expedition to overwinter (not on land, but locked in sea ice); it's overshadowed by the fame & tragedy of British Antarctic expeditions, and many of the primary sources have never received (good, accessible) English translations. So a book was sorely needed, and this is a great one. I liked it before reading Cook's Through the First Antarctic Night & three of Arctowski's publications & a number of academic articles; having done so I like it even more because, again, so many resources are relatively inaccessible & thus valuable collected here, and the men of the Belgica were larger than life and equally flawed, their expedition a Hot Mess™️ but a landmark within polar exploration, and Sancton ably navigates those contradictions: he builds a coherent narrative while never simplifying the complexity of the people involved, and celebrates the bravery sacrifice achievements etc. while non-exploitatively identifying the many, many, truly ridiculous ways that these men fucked it up.
Author: Julian Sancton
Published: Crown, 2021
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 355
Total Page Count: 535,505
Text Number: 1962
Read Because: this cold boys reading list, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The Belgica of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition inaugurated the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, and was the first expedition to overwinter (not on land, but locked in sea ice); it's overshadowed by the fame & tragedy of British Antarctic expeditions, and many of the primary sources have never received (good, accessible) English translations. So a book was sorely needed, and this is a great one. I liked it before reading Cook's Through the First Antarctic Night & three of Arctowski's publications & a number of academic articles; having done so I like it even more because, again, so many resources are relatively inaccessible & thus valuable collected here, and the men of the Belgica were larger than life and equally flawed, their expedition a Hot Mess™️ but a landmark within polar exploration, and Sancton ably navigates those contradictions: he builds a coherent narrative while never simplifying the complexity of the people involved, and celebrates the bravery sacrifice achievements etc. while non-exploitatively identifying the many, many, truly ridiculous ways that these men fucked it up.
