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ekarpinski's review
2.0
This book is a waste of space on any polar expedition bookshelf.
The author is totally ignorant of the historical context of Amundsen's expeditions. He vaguely talks about how Amundsen arranged his crews diets to have plenty of Vitamin C. Vitamin C literally wasn't discovered until 1912 and wouldn't be isolated until after Amundsen's death, decades later! So he LITERALLY COULDN'T HAVE been planning for them to have "adequate Vitamin C".
This gross simplification glosses over the really interesting parts of Amundsen's strategy, which was to study the problem closely and take a grab bag of everything that had been known to prevent scurvy. I can't get over what a stupid detail this is to overlook. If they knew about Vitamin C in 1912, then Scott's expedition wouldn't have been getting Scurvy on the other side of Antarctica! It's not like Amundsen just googled "how much vitamin C does my team need to prevent scurvy", he had to figure it out.
A lesser crime is how full the book is of "Amundsen must have" and "Amundsen might have", "no doubt", "probably", "perhaps" -- i.e., a lot of interpretation and occasionally wild speculation. Consider the matter of Amundsen's death while trying to rescue his rival Nobile. The main contemporary sources agree that Amundsen immediately volunteered for a rescue effort. In this telling, we get sentences like "an emotional and temperamental man, he probably regretted his feud with Nobile" with literally no evidence or source, the author is just floating ideas out there. That kind of bridge might be acceptable, but it's just the tip of the iceberg. We go on to say "a reluctant rescuer and his participation was all to save face" Uhhhh...source? according to who? Then to continue storytelling over the apparent total lack of research we continue with fanciful bits like "Amundsen may have been surprised and perhaps annoyed" [to find he was going to be part of the rescue effort] finishing up with "perhaps he lacked the courage to say no, he wasn't going, it wasn't his job." Where did that come from?
The author is totally ignorant of the historical context of Amundsen's expeditions. He vaguely talks about how Amundsen arranged his crews diets to have plenty of Vitamin C. Vitamin C literally wasn't discovered until 1912 and wouldn't be isolated until after Amundsen's death, decades later! So he LITERALLY COULDN'T HAVE been planning for them to have "adequate Vitamin C".
This gross simplification glosses over the really interesting parts of Amundsen's strategy, which was to study the problem closely and take a grab bag of everything that had been known to prevent scurvy. I can't get over what a stupid detail this is to overlook. If they knew about Vitamin C in 1912, then Scott's expedition wouldn't have been getting Scurvy on the other side of Antarctica! It's not like Amundsen just googled "how much vitamin C does my team need to prevent scurvy", he had to figure it out.
A lesser crime is how full the book is of "Amundsen must have" and "Amundsen might have", "no doubt", "probably", "perhaps" -- i.e., a lot of interpretation and occasionally wild speculation. Consider the matter of Amundsen's death while trying to rescue his rival Nobile. The main contemporary sources agree that Amundsen immediately volunteered for a rescue effort. In this telling, we get sentences like "an emotional and temperamental man, he probably regretted his feud with Nobile" with literally no evidence or source, the author is just floating ideas out there. That kind of bridge might be acceptable, but it's just the tip of the iceberg. We go on to say "a reluctant rescuer and his participation was all to save face" Uhhhh...source? according to who? Then to continue storytelling over the apparent total lack of research we continue with fanciful bits like "Amundsen may have been surprised and perhaps annoyed" [to find he was going to be part of the rescue effort] finishing up with "perhaps he lacked the courage to say no, he wasn't going, it wasn't his job." Where did that come from?
spav's review against another edition
3.0
Quite thorough and entertaining. On the minus side, the final of Amundsen is not covered as though as I would have liked it. It also leaves many people close to Amundsen “hanging” (what happened to each of the crew members of the South Pole expedition?, how about the components of the other expeditions described? How about Nobile and Ellsworth and Riiser-Larsen?…)
sfstagewalker's review
5.0
I picked this up knowing nothing about Roald Amundsen, although the name sounded vaguely familiar. After reading it, I know not only who this amazing individual was, but why I don't know more about him. If you're interested in the end of the age of exploration, the way that national pride and athletic ambition intertwine for good and bad, the early emergence of corporate sponsorship, and of course just old fashioned gripping stories about people pushing themselves to the absolute limits in the name of a dream... then I highly recommend this book.
There is a comment at the end of the book, after Amundsen's tale is done, about how we haven't known much about him in the English speaking world, because all of his letters are in Norwegian, and that the immense amount of information about his life in contemporary news articles actually create an impediment to research because of the volume and repetitiveness of the material. The reminder that amazing, history making individuals are easily forgotten if they don't belong to the dominant information culture (or worse yet, threaten the nationalistic narrative of the dominant culture) is one that will spur me to seek out more biographies of people otherwise forgotten or pushed to the margins.
There is a comment at the end of the book, after Amundsen's tale is done, about how we haven't known much about him in the English speaking world, because all of his letters are in Norwegian, and that the immense amount of information about his life in contemporary news articles actually create an impediment to research because of the volume and repetitiveness of the material. The reminder that amazing, history making individuals are easily forgotten if they don't belong to the dominant information culture (or worse yet, threaten the nationalistic narrative of the dominant culture) is one that will spur me to seek out more biographies of people otherwise forgotten or pushed to the margins.
andrewk35's review
4.0
The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen by Stephen R. Brown
“There were no more poles to conquer.”
One of the great joys in reading and often trying new books or new topics to expand your horizons is finding a new niche that for whatever reason, captivates you. Or at least this has been my experience. I’m not really sure how I ended up realizing I was a junky for non-fiction stories of exploration. Being from a small town and growing up before the internet using a book to find out about foreign places maybe imprinted on me. Maybe it’s just normal wanderlust. Maybe everyone else stares at the stars with the same wonder. I’ve talked to other book nerds about this so I know I’m not alone. Clearly the publishing companies are aware we exist. There don’t seem to any shortage of books published in this theme and written for broad consumption. A subsect of the exploration category is the Heroic Age of Exploration and polar exploration. Having found these subjects to be of particular interest, I’ve come across the name Roald Amundsen on multiple occasions, most recently in Julian Sancton’s Madhouse at the End of the Earth. I don’t remember if this was recommended to me through a social media post or by some omniscient algorithm, in either case, the recommendation was sound.
Amundsen is an interesting character. An explorer who attempted to capitalize on his exploits with the aim of funding further adventure by giving mass speaking tours, but who also had to once leave early to avoid creditors who would have seized his ship right before he embarked. He’s a man who planned for his adventures years in advance and also never had a chance to marry and had to sell his awards, medals, and home due to bankruptcy. He’s an interesting case study in someone who’s singular motivation overshadows his ability to manage the day to day life. He's also the first man to navigate the Northwest Passage. During his years doing so, he studied and befriended several Inuit/First Nations people in the area to learn how they survived in the Artic Circle. He took their knowledge of dogsledding and reindeer hides along with his own Norwegian prevalence for skiing with him on his best known journey. Being the first to the South Pole. Interestingly, he sort of did so under false pretenses. He raised funds and acquired a ship with the aim of collecting scientific data from the Artic, but had meticulously planned for a southern journey first. He assured his friends and creditors he’d still complete his task in the north pole, just after a few years in Antarctica.
After once again doing what no one had a done before, he went on a celebratory tour and attempted to cash in on his exploits (and to fend off his creditors.) Ernest Shackleton, a contemporary explorer worth the multitudes of volumes dedicated to him, noted in a speech that Amundsen never used the word “I” when discussing his team’s journey to the south pole. Of course the victory of the pole was overshadowed by the death of Robert Falcon Scott making the same attempt, only to discover they’d been beaten before attempting to return to their ship and dying in the process. England made martyrs of Scott and his crew, and to an extent villains of Amundsen for having survived and for not having declared their intention to race for the pole until later.
Ever adaptable, Amundsen attempted to use early airplanes to make journey’s to the north pole before succeeding in an airship or zeppelin, but not without some controversy. Two earlier explorers claimed to have reached the north pole. Both claims are doubtful, even the one made by a former crew mate and close friend of Amundsen. In all likelihood, Amundsen was the first man to reach both poles and navigate the Northwest passage. After having reached the north pole, he is said to have become sentimental and noted that there were no more poles to conquer. It was hard not to draw a parallel to Alexander weeping at having conquered the world.
I think this book did a great job shining light on Amundsen’s exploits while not necessarily letting him off the hook for what seems to be his primary driver- glory. There’s really nothing gained or claimed by walking to or flying over a pole. And the tremendous cost and peril to those he took with him might seem selfish if they didn’t share in his deranged desire to test the limits of human endurance. He also ended up with strange bed fellows. To say nothing of some unscrupulous business partners his air ship to the north pole was given to him by Mussolini and flown by an Italian Fascist Colonel. Relationships he would later regret and would in many ways lead to his death. There’s an area of the book that was surprisingly interesting to me. The period after the poles are conquered and Amundsen’s touring is finished and in his elder year’s he’s called to try to live knowing that the goals he had set for himself as a young man were met but now he was without a pole to conquer or a passage to explore. For the years he spent floating on ice floes and drift at the mercy of the elements one wonder’s how this slow and unremarkable passage of time ate at him.
“There were no more poles to conquer.”
One of the great joys in reading and often trying new books or new topics to expand your horizons is finding a new niche that for whatever reason, captivates you. Or at least this has been my experience. I’m not really sure how I ended up realizing I was a junky for non-fiction stories of exploration. Being from a small town and growing up before the internet using a book to find out about foreign places maybe imprinted on me. Maybe it’s just normal wanderlust. Maybe everyone else stares at the stars with the same wonder. I’ve talked to other book nerds about this so I know I’m not alone. Clearly the publishing companies are aware we exist. There don’t seem to any shortage of books published in this theme and written for broad consumption. A subsect of the exploration category is the Heroic Age of Exploration and polar exploration. Having found these subjects to be of particular interest, I’ve come across the name Roald Amundsen on multiple occasions, most recently in Julian Sancton’s Madhouse at the End of the Earth. I don’t remember if this was recommended to me through a social media post or by some omniscient algorithm, in either case, the recommendation was sound.
Amundsen is an interesting character. An explorer who attempted to capitalize on his exploits with the aim of funding further adventure by giving mass speaking tours, but who also had to once leave early to avoid creditors who would have seized his ship right before he embarked. He’s a man who planned for his adventures years in advance and also never had a chance to marry and had to sell his awards, medals, and home due to bankruptcy. He’s an interesting case study in someone who’s singular motivation overshadows his ability to manage the day to day life. He's also the first man to navigate the Northwest Passage. During his years doing so, he studied and befriended several Inuit/First Nations people in the area to learn how they survived in the Artic Circle. He took their knowledge of dogsledding and reindeer hides along with his own Norwegian prevalence for skiing with him on his best known journey. Being the first to the South Pole. Interestingly, he sort of did so under false pretenses. He raised funds and acquired a ship with the aim of collecting scientific data from the Artic, but had meticulously planned for a southern journey first. He assured his friends and creditors he’d still complete his task in the north pole, just after a few years in Antarctica.
After once again doing what no one had a done before, he went on a celebratory tour and attempted to cash in on his exploits (and to fend off his creditors.) Ernest Shackleton, a contemporary explorer worth the multitudes of volumes dedicated to him, noted in a speech that Amundsen never used the word “I” when discussing his team’s journey to the south pole. Of course the victory of the pole was overshadowed by the death of Robert Falcon Scott making the same attempt, only to discover they’d been beaten before attempting to return to their ship and dying in the process. England made martyrs of Scott and his crew, and to an extent villains of Amundsen for having survived and for not having declared their intention to race for the pole until later.
Ever adaptable, Amundsen attempted to use early airplanes to make journey’s to the north pole before succeeding in an airship or zeppelin, but not without some controversy. Two earlier explorers claimed to have reached the north pole. Both claims are doubtful, even the one made by a former crew mate and close friend of Amundsen. In all likelihood, Amundsen was the first man to reach both poles and navigate the Northwest passage. After having reached the north pole, he is said to have become sentimental and noted that there were no more poles to conquer. It was hard not to draw a parallel to Alexander weeping at having conquered the world.
I think this book did a great job shining light on Amundsen’s exploits while not necessarily letting him off the hook for what seems to be his primary driver- glory. There’s really nothing gained or claimed by walking to or flying over a pole. And the tremendous cost and peril to those he took with him might seem selfish if they didn’t share in his deranged desire to test the limits of human endurance. He also ended up with strange bed fellows. To say nothing of some unscrupulous business partners his air ship to the north pole was given to him by Mussolini and flown by an Italian Fascist Colonel. Relationships he would later regret and would in many ways lead to his death. There’s an area of the book that was surprisingly interesting to me. The period after the poles are conquered and Amundsen’s touring is finished and in his elder year’s he’s called to try to live knowing that the goals he had set for himself as a young man were met but now he was without a pole to conquer or a passage to explore. For the years he spent floating on ice floes and drift at the mercy of the elements one wonder’s how this slow and unremarkable passage of time ate at him.
storymi's review against another edition
2.0
Ik geloof dat ik liever dagboeken van avonturiers lees, dan boeken van mensen die schrijven over dagboeken van avonturiers.
trabska's review against another edition
4.0
Przeczytałam historię człowieka niesamowitego. Koniec jego życia choć smutny, nie mógł być 'napisany' lepiej. Obraz ekspedycji polarnych, wywołał we mnie szok. Bo oczywiście, możemy sobie wyobrażać jak mniej więcej to wyglądało... ale tu przy całym opisie wiem, że nic nie wiedziałam. Coś niesamowitego, biorąc pod uwagę czasy, brak technologii jaką mamy chociażby teraz. Czy obecnych 'wikingów' możemy w ogóle porównywać do Amundsena? Czy obecnie w ogóle mamy takich wikingów? Norweg naprawdę mógł być tym Ostatnim.
Są momenty dłużyzn, na przykład opis i proces przygotowań do wypraw, które trwały LATA - możliwe, że jest to pewien rodzaj niewykorzystanego potencjału, ale wciąż czytało się dobrze. Dodatkowo klimat tamtych czasów, miesięcy spędzonych w lodzie, według mnie nie jest tak odczuwalny jak bym tego chciała. Amundsen jest tutaj nie tylko polarnikiem, wielkim zdobywcą, ale poznajemy go jako gwiazdę mediów tamtych czasów, kogoś niezrozumianego, zimnego, kalkulującego... w tym wszystkim był taki jaki powinien być, żeby odnieść sukces.
Są momenty dłużyzn, na przykład opis i proces przygotowań do wypraw, które trwały LATA - możliwe, że jest to pewien rodzaj niewykorzystanego potencjału, ale wciąż czytało się dobrze. Dodatkowo klimat tamtych czasów, miesięcy spędzonych w lodzie, według mnie nie jest tak odczuwalny jak bym tego chciała. Amundsen jest tutaj nie tylko polarnikiem, wielkim zdobywcą, ale poznajemy go jako gwiazdę mediów tamtych czasów, kogoś niezrozumianego, zimnego, kalkulującego... w tym wszystkim był taki jaki powinien być, żeby odnieść sukces.
smemmott's review
4.0
An excellent overview of Amundsen's entire career. Bown offers a thorough background that explains Amundsen's approach to his South Pole expedition. I would have enjoyed reading more about particular expeditions, especially the Northwest Passage and South Pole, but I think most readers will appreciate the author's focus on telling the broader story of Amundsen's life.