John McCannon

This book is slightly misnamed. The subtitle "Nature, Exploration and Exploitation" should have been shortened to leave out nature, as nature is not discussed, just mentioned rarely. The human history in this book is extensive but unfortunately so little was known about the cultures of the northern people that there is almost nothing on most of them in the book, past the mention that they did exist, between two other cultures which also were mostly unknown.

Once the history reaches past the show more written records, it becomes a legacy of oppression by Russian and western colonial occupiers.

For readers interested in only the human history of the north, this is a good compilation of the scanty information that is known. show less

The writing is dry, but the subject fascinates me. An examination of Soviet culture in the 1930's through the lens of heroic polar/Siberian explorers.