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37 reviews for:
The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundsen's Race to the South Pole (Exploration)
Roland Huntford, Jon Krakauer, Paul Theroux
4.36 AVERAGE
37 reviews for:
The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundsen's Race to the South Pole (Exploration)
Roland Huntford, Jon Krakauer, Paul Theroux
4.36 AVERAGE
A very long book but an interesting read. At some points it drags a bit but it gives a lot of background information and it helps to understand why things turned out as they did, with Amundsen victorious and Scott dead.
Inspiring and detailed story of how to properly plan, prepare and execute something ambitious that hasn't been done before.
Huntford has two parallel paths going: to success, and to failure. And two characters that could not be more different with more different endings to their lives. One of my favourite paragraphs at the end of the book summarises the fundamentals: 'Scott wanted to be a hero; Amundsen merely wanted to get to the Pole. Scott, with his instinct for self-dramatization, was playing to the gallery; Amundsen thought of the job in hand, not of an audience.'
The level of detail and research that has gone into this duography is impressive and for all adventure lovers, simply fascinating to read.
Unfortunately, due to the timing of reading this book there are too many unfunny parallels that can be drawn to the Brexit disaster, the most important one being learning from mistakes and making decisions accordingly.
Huntford has two parallel paths going: to success, and to failure. And two characters that could not be more different with more different endings to their lives. One of my favourite paragraphs at the end of the book summarises the fundamentals: 'Scott wanted to be a hero; Amundsen merely wanted to get to the Pole. Scott, with his instinct for self-dramatization, was playing to the gallery; Amundsen thought of the job in hand, not of an audience.'
The level of detail and research that has gone into this duography is impressive and for all adventure lovers, simply fascinating to read.
Unfortunately, due to the timing of reading this book there are too many unfunny parallels that can be drawn to the Brexit disaster, the most important one being learning from mistakes and making decisions accordingly.
This is an impressive work, probably 4.5. Absolutely spell-binding in its depiction of the polar journeys and intriguing in its characterisation. It's written with force, almost anger, that is probably a feature of the fact that it was the first to expose the myth of Scott's heroic failure. That's not always fun to read. But, mainly, I'm not giving 5 stars to anyone who unironically refers to "a known Lesbian" and uses an archaic and offensive term like "Eskimo" because 'it's what they would have said at the time'.
An excellent analysis of both the Scott and Amundsen teams. Answers many questions. Highly recommended.
I've always been struck by the fact that the British revere Scott, a miserable failure, in my estimation. He was smug, didn't do his homework, and wasted resources on a doomed effort. Amundsen, on the other hand, studied the Eskimos to learn how to survive in harsh arctic conditions, learned how to use dogs, including eating them as they went along, and he breezed to the South Pole and back almost as easily as a walk in the park. Scott insisted on taking mules, which required that he haul hay along. Just ridiculous.
Wow! I was consumed by this book. Amundsen and Scott on their race to the South Pole provide such a stark contrast of leadership. Amundsen, even with his slight mistakes and foibles was inspirational. Scott, on the other hand, was inept and his story is tragic. We all know how this story ended but this book is a must read!!!!