Research handbook on polar law

Abstract

nineteenth or twentieth century – can be so neatly black boxed. In his postscript, Wood writes that ‘The Victorian explorer’s greatest legacy . . . lay not in national conquest, but in their shared commitment to scientific discovery’ (248). While it is certainly true that gathering scientific data was a focus of the 1837–1840 expeditions, such efforts were not, and never are, undertaken in a vacuum. Wood’s account of encounters with native populations in Tierra del Fuego, enslaved people in Rio, and even Ross’ final claim to Hooker’s Antarctic collection speak precisely to the social, economic and political power structures that enmesh scientific research. While reviving a scientific lineage to the Victorian explorers is absolutely necessary, bolstering the powerful trope of a ‘Continent of Science’, existing adrift from history at the end of the world, is less so. Nevertheless, Wondrous Cold is a masterful means of emplacing Antarctica – and the history of science – in deep time: an urgent concern in our moment of climate crisis.