CompleteMartialArts.com - The North Pole
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List Price: $22.95
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Manufacturer: Cooper Square Press
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.91632
EAN: 9780815411383
ISBN: 0815411383
Label: Cooper Square Press
Manufacturer: Cooper Square Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 512
Publication Date: 2001-04-25
Publisher: Cooper Square Press
Studio: Cooper Square Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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Was Robert Peary the first man to reach the North Pole, as he claimed, on April 6, 1909? Rival explorer Frederick A. Cook called Peary's announcement a hoax, a conspiracy to fame supported by Peary's moneyed financiers.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: An Exciting Period in History
Comment: The late 19th and early 20th centuries were an exiting time of exploration in which indomitable men raced to be the first to set foot upon the farthest reaches of the Earth. In this pursuit, these explorers were forced to overcome unimaginable hardships as well as the unknown, and many were lost or left buried in desolate graves of ice and snow; upon mountain tops; deep within equatorial jungles. Though many explorers took up the quest in order to achieve personal glory or financial gain, others explored for the sake of pure discovery. They learned lessons from their fallen predecessors, building upon the experiences of previous generations in order to earn success. They performed science along the way: taking measurements, classifying animals, recording observations; adding to a body of knowledge that inexorably grew with each new expedition; knowledge building upon knowledge. The public was fascinated and enthralled by these explorers, cheering on the valiant regardless of nationality; excoriating the weak or the timid or the imposters of success.
Robert E. Peary's account of his final push for the North Pole contains all of these elements. Though he certainly sought personal glory for himself, it is clear that he also explored for the sake of exploration. He was consumed by the desire to be the first to reach the North Pole; to plant his nation's flag upon that spot where "Only one direction remained and that was south." He made 8 trips into the high arctic before he found success, paying the price with failure after failure and the loss of most of his toes through frostbite. He learned from each trip, compounding his knowledge each time while incorporating the experiences of (and paying homage to) those explorers who had come before him. When he at last found success, he found controversy also: a rival claim had been made, a claim that, though ultimately considered to be fraudulent, forever cast doubt upon Peary's claim as well. Did Robert E. Peary achieve the North Pole on April 6, 1909? Many historians claim otherwise-including Robert M. Bryce, who wrote a new introduction for this edition-but Peary's success or failure hardly seems relevant today: it is the journey that should be important; the desire and the public will to explore for the sake of exploration, a public will that had evaporated before the last Apollo astronauts had returned from the moon, and a public will that has remained flaccid for three decades even though we possess the technology to return to the moon or travel beyond with human explorers who are willing to confront danger for the sake of compounding knowledge and experience.
"The North Pole" reads like the period that produced it: gruff, patriarchal, politically incorrect; but between the lines of stinging racial judgments that offend our senses today are clear and precise recollections of an era that gave us a sense of wonder. The language of only 100 years ago is salted with phrases, expressions, and idiom that seem utterly foreign yet tantalizingly familiar and refreshing in some strange way: the language of spirit and indomitable will and success.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great inroduction
Comment: This is a fine book with a fine introduction. Peary may have been a racist who said he took African American Matt Henson with him because he said "I did not feel called upon to share the honors that might occur with any other man", but this is still an interesting read even if Peary never actually reached the pole.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Do not use my review for the AUDIO TAPE!
Comment: Amazon? Earth to Amazon? Come in please. My review was for a book with a bad introduction, not for an audio tape of the actual classic sans negative introduction. Oh, well.This is BOOK REVIEW: Cooper Square anti-Peary introduced version. This classic has been spoiled by another "bully pulpit" 28-page anti-Peary introduction. As a public domain work it may be facsimile reproduced by anyone. ANYONE. And so it has.
The work is a classic in exploration history, but the "new" introduction is from an anti-Peary crusader. Thumbs down!
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