9/20/2011

Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole Review

Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole
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This book is not only a wonderful look at the fascinating men who were obsessed with reaching the North Pole, but with the fascination that unknown lands have on the human imagination. I was impressed with how foreign the concept of the North Pole was until it was reached. It was as mysterious to people back then as Mars is now, if not more so. Some theorists believed a whole other world was located in the center of Earth, accessible only by the Pole, and which housed a whole different race of people. The hardships that these men willingly endured just to be able to put their flag up and name a spot on the map and for the glory of it, simply amazed me. A terrific read without a slow spot in the whole thing. On top of it Fleming is a terrific wordsmith who has a really funny take on things at times. Get it.

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In the nineteenth century, theories about the North Pole ran rampant. Was it an open sea? Was it a portal to new worlds within the globe? Or was it just a wilderness of ice? When Sir John Franklin disappeared in the Arctic in 1845, explorers decided it was time to find out. In scintillating detail, Ninety Degrees North tells of the vying governments (including the United States, Britain, Germany, and Austria-Hungary) and fantastic eccentrics (from Swedish balloonists to Italian aristocrats) who, despite their heroic failures, often achieved massive celebrity as they battled shipwreck, starvation, and sickness to reach the top of the world. Drawing on unpublished archives and long-forgotten journals, Fleming tells this story with consummate craftsmanship and wit. Ninety Degrees North is a riveting saga of humankind's search for the ultimate goal.

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