Read Online To the Edges of the Earth 1909 the Race for the Three Poles and the Climax of the Age of Exploration Edward J Larson 9780062564481 Books

Product details Paperback 352 pages Publisher William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (March 26, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 006256448X

To the Edges of the Earth 1909 the Race for the Three Poles and the Climax of the Age of Exploration Edward J Larson 9780062564481 Books Reviews

• Larson has seamlessly interwoven three tales epitomizing the concept of "masculine courage" shown by those seeking to fill in the last empty spaces on the globe as the twentieth century began. American, British, and Italian explorers submitted their bodies to excruciating torment in order to be the first to attain the "three poles" located in the harshest environments of the planet. The author's personal experience in Arctic, Antarctic, and Himalayan regions make his descriptions of their hardships come alive. Readers will be amazed by the fortitude shown by these explorers in their quests for their personal goals. Maps and photos enhance Larson's descriptive prose and document the expeditions.
• The will power and the endurance they had
• The title is far more exciting than the book
• Must read for anyone inspired by exploration and the anatomy of survival. A perfect companion on a long trip into nature.
• To the Edges of the Earth 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration by Edward J. Larson is an examination of the most adventurous year of all time.
  
  1909 can be said to be the climactic year in the modern age of adventure-based exploration. The three poles to be conquered in 1909 were the North Pole, the South Pole, and the so-called Pole of Altitude in the Himalayas. (The South pole was sometimes divided into the geographic south and magnetic south poles.) The expeditions would face extraordinary difficulties, extremely harsh conditions, tremendous hardship, and death to claim the fame of being the first to plant their flags on these poles.
  
  At the end of the year the explorers were celebrities. Americans Robert Peary and Matthew Henson were hailed as the discovers of the North Pole. Britain’s Ernest Shackleton set a new geographic "Furthest South" record. Shackleton's teammate, Australian Douglas Mawson, reached the Magnetic South Pole. "Italy’s Duke of the Abruzzi set an altitude record that would stand for a generation during his mountaineering expedition to the Himalaya's eastern Karakoram. The Duke attempted K2 and established the standard route up the most notorious mountain on the planet.
  
  Larson points out in the preface "This book especially benefited from my participation in the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, which allowed me to go where the Antarctic explorers went, camp where they camped, and climb where they climbed. Always traveling with others, and frequently in the company of experts, through this program I saw much of what Shackleton, Mawson, and the other early visitors to the Ross Sea region saw, from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and Ross Ice Shelf to the South Pole and summit of Mount Erebus. Extended stays at Shackleton’s Cape Royds and near Scott’s Hut Point and Cape Evans, where the explorers’ primitive winter quarters remain intact down to their unused crates of hardtack biscuits and long-frozen meat in the larder, gave insight into how the parties lived beyond what I could hope to glean from archival research."
  
  The finished book contains notes, an index, photos, and maps. While I thought Larson did an admirable job following the three expeditions over the course of the book, my reading experience would have been greatly enhanced by the inclusion of photos and maps, which those who get the pleasure of reading the published editions will no doubt appreciate immensely.
  
  Disclosure My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.
• I received this book as part of the Goodreads Giveaway program. It was an excellent overview of the three explorations accomplished in 1909. Admiral Peary’s race to the North Pole, Ernest Shackleton’s race to the South Pole and lastly, Luigi Amedeo, the Duke of Abruzzi’s climb to the highest peak of K2 for that time.
  I enjoyed reading about the challenges these brave men endured to accomplish their feats. Starvation, freezing temperatures and in Amedeo’s climb, terrifying heights were only some of these challenges. Some of their accomplishments are now disputed, but they were headline-making feats at the time. This became the last years of true exploration for our above ground world.
  We still have other things to explore, other worlds, and our own seas in which we find new species every day. I liked reading about these men, this was a time when the wealthy paid or did the exploring, and the government did not get involved.
  If you enjoy why men explored the unknown and how it happened, you will like this book. I highly recommend it.