Adventures in the Antarctic only happen when someone makes a mistake.” —From the Preface In 1956, John C. Behrendt had just earned his master’s degree in geophysics and obtained a position as an assistant seismologist in the International Geophysical Year glaciological program. He sailed from Davisville, Rhode Island to spend eighteen months in Antarctica with the IGY expedition as part of a U.S. Navy-supported scientific expedition to establish Ellsworth Station on the Filchner Ice Shelf. Innocents on the Ice is a memoir based on Behrendt’s handwritten journals, looking back on his daily entries describing his life and activities on the most isolated of the seven U.S. Antarctic stations. Nine civilians and thirty Navy men lived beneath the snow together, and intense personal conflicts arose during the dark Antarctic winter of 1957. Little outside contact was available to ease the tension, with no mail delivery and only occasional radio contact with families back home. The author describes the emotional stress of the living situation, along with details of his parties’ explorations of the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf system during the summers of 1957 and 1958. Along the hazardous 1,300-mile traverse in two Sno-Cats, the field party measured ice thickness and snow accumulation as part of an international effort to determine the balance of the Antarctic ice sheet, and made the first geological observations of the spectacular Dufek Massif in the then-unexplored Pensacola Mountains. Behrendt also draws upon his forty years of continual participation in Antarctic research to explain the changes in scientific activities and environmental awareness in Antarctica today. Including photos, maps, and a glossary identifying various forms of ice, Innocents on the Ice is a fascinating combination of the diary of a young graduate student and the reflections of the accomplished scientist he became.
When John Behrendt went to Antarctica in the early 1960s as part of the United States Antarctic Research Program (USARP), the Cold War was at its height and research on the ice sheet was risky. The Antarctic air squadron VX6 had an accident rate eight times that of U.S. Naval aviation in other parts of the world, and graduate students and young scientists like Behrendt received hazard pay for their work. In John Behrendt's memoir we relive that era of scientific exploration. He describes two seasons on the ice in Operation Deep Freeze, leading field parties, conducting scientific research, and struggling against the elements. Behrendt led an over-snow geophysical-glaciological-geologic-geographic exploration party to the southern Antarctic Peninsula and to a mountain range that was eventually named for him in recognition of his work. Behrendt pioneered in aerogeophysical surveys over the Transantarctic Mountains and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. In his reflections of the period from 1960 to 1962, he notes that time was closer to the eras of Ernest Schackleton (Endurance Voyage, 1914) and Robert F. Scott's and Roald Amundsen's treks to the South Pole (1911-12) than to the present. Readers who are fascinated with the twentieth-century frontier of our shrinking planet will relish his adventurous account.
When John Behrendt went to Antarctica in the early 1960s as part of the United States Antarctic Research Program (USARP), the Cold War was at its height and research on the ice sheet was risky. The Antarctic air squadron VX6 had an accident rate eight times that of U.S. Naval aviation in other parts of the world, and graduate students and young scientists like Behrendt received hazard pay for their work. In John Behrendt's memoir we relive that era of scientific exploration. He describes two seasons on the ice in Operation Deep Freeze, leading field parties, conducting scientific research, and struggling against the elements. Behrendt led an over-snow geophysical-glaciological-geologic-geographic exploration party to the southern Antarctic Peninsula and to a mountain range that was eventually named for him in recognition of his work. Behrendt pioneered in aerogeophysical surveys over the Transantarctic Mountains and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. In his reflections of the period from 1960 to 1962, he notes that time was closer to the eras of Ernest Schackleton (Endurance Voyage, 1914) and Robert F. Scott's and Roald Amundsen's treks to the South Pole (1911-12) than to the present. Readers who are fascinated with the twentieth-century frontier of our shrinking planet will relish his adventurous account.
Adventures in the Antarctic only happen when someone makes a mistake.” —From the Preface In 1956, John C. Behrendt had just earned his master’s degree in geophysics and obtained a position as an assistant seismologist in the International Geophysical Year glaciological program. He sailed from Davisville, Rhode Island to spend eighteen months in Antarctica with the IGY expedition as part of a U.S. Navy-supported scientific expedition to establish Ellsworth Station on the Filchner Ice Shelf. Innocents on the Ice is a memoir based on Behrendt’s handwritten journals, looking back on his daily entries describing his life and activities on the most isolated of the seven U.S. Antarctic stations. Nine civilians and thirty Navy men lived beneath the snow together, and intense personal conflicts arose during the dark Antarctic winter of 1957. Little outside contact was available to ease the tension, with no mail delivery and only occasional radio contact with families back home. The author describes the emotional stress of the living situation, along with details of his parties’ explorations of the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf system during the summers of 1957 and 1958. Along the hazardous 1,300-mile traverse in two Sno-Cats, the field party measured ice thickness and snow accumulation as part of an international effort to determine the balance of the Antarctic ice sheet, and made the first geological observations of the spectacular Dufek Massif in the then-unexplored Pensacola Mountains. Behrendt also draws upon his forty years of continual participation in Antarctic research to explain the changes in scientific activities and environmental awareness in Antarctica today. Including photos, maps, and a glossary identifying various forms of ice, Innocents on the Ice is a fascinating combination of the diary of a young graduate student and the reflections of the accomplished scientist he became.
The 2017 winner of the Robert and Vineta Colby Scholarly Book Prize Providing a comprehensive, interdisciplinary examination of scholarship on nineteenth-century British periodicals, this volume surveys the current state of research and offers researchers an in-depth examination of contemporary methodologies. The impact of digital media and archives on the field informs all discussions of the print archive. Contributors illustrate their arguments with examples and contextualize their topics within broader areas of study, while also reflecting on how the study of periodicals may evolve in the future. The Handbook will serve as a valuable resource for scholars and students of nineteenth-century culture who are interested in issues of cultural formation, transformation, and transmission in a developing industrial and globalizing age, as well as those whose research focuses on the bibliographical and the micro case study. In addition to rendering a comprehensive review and critique of current research on nineteenth-century British periodicals, the Handbook suggests new avenues for research in the twenty-first century. "This volume's 30 chapters deal with practically every aspect of periodical research and with the specific topics and audiences the 19th-century periodical press addressed. It also covers matters such as digitization that did not exist or were in early development a generation ago. In addition to the essays, readers will find 50 illustrations, 54 pages of bibliography, and a chronology of the periodical press. This book gives seemingly endless insights into the ways periodicals and newspapers influenced and reflected 19th-century culture. It not only makes readers aware of problems involved in interpreting the history of the press but also offers suggestions for ways of untangling them and points the direction for future research. It will be a valuable resource for readers with interests in almost any aspect of 19th-century Britain. Summing Up: Highly recommended" - J. D. Vann, University of North Texas in CHOICE
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