Explorations in the Icy North contributes an original transnational and comparative study of Arctic exploration in the nineteenth century. In four chapters, Kaalund draws from archival sources in Britain, Canada, Denmark, and the United States to track changes in Arctic travel narratives between 1818 and 1883. She investigates these changing narratives to spotlight broader shifts in the financial sponsors of expeditions, technologies of travel and field research, and cultural expectations of how explorers ought to present their work in print. Anyone interested in Arctic history, Arctic exploration, travel writing, nineteenth-century imperial history, or field science will find this work valuable. Of particular interest to readers of this journal will be Kaalund’s integrative analysis of primary-source documents across several national contexts.

As a vast geographical region carved into more than a half-dozen nation-states and many more Indigenous settlement areas, the Arctic presents serious barriers to comprehensive historical inquiry. Yet, as Kaalund...

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