Dian
Olson Belanger - Deep Freeze: The United States,
the International Geophysical Year, and the Origins of
Antarctica's Age of Science
De achterflap:
In Deep Freeze, Dian Olson Belanger tells the
story of the pioneers who built viable communities, made
vital scientific discoveries, and established Antarctica
as a continent dedicated to peace and the pursuit of science,
decades after the first explorers planted flags in the ice.
In the tense 1950s, even as the world was locked in the
Cold War, U.S. scientists, maintained by the Navy’s
Operation Deep Freeze, came together in Antarctica with
counterparts from eleven other countries to participate
in the International Geophysical Year (IGY). On July 1,
1957, they began systematic, simultaneous scientific observations
of the south-polar ice and atmosphere. Their collaborative
success over eighteen months inspired the Antarctic Treaty
of 1959, which formalized their peaceful pursuit of scientific
knowledge. Still building on the achievements of the individuals
and distrustful nations thrown together by the IGY from
mutually wary military, scientific, and political cultures,
science prospers today and peace endures.
The year 2007 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the
IGY and the commencement of a new International Polar Year—a
compelling moment to review what a singular enterprise accomplished
in a troubled time. Belanger draws from interviews, diaries,
memoirs, and official records to weave together the first
thorough study of the dawn of Antarctica’s scientific
age. Deep Freeze offers absorbing reading for those
who have ventured onto Antarctic ice and those who dream
of it.
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