Book Description

Shackleton's Forgotten Expedition is the story of Ernest Shackleton's epic journey toward the South Pole. Lacking funds and plagued by hunger, cruel weather, and unpredictable terrain, Shackleton and his party accomplished some of the most remarkable feats in the history of exploration. Not only were members of the expedition the first to climb the active volcano Mount Erebus and the first to reach the South Magnetic Pole, but Shackleton himself led a party of four that trudged hundreds of miles across uncharted wastelands and up to the terrible Antarctic Plateau to plant the Union Jack only ninety-seven miles from the South Pole itself. Based on extensive research and first-hand accounts Riffenburgh makes the expedition vivid while providing fascinating insight into the age of British exploration and Empire. Beau Riffenburgh is a historian specializing in exploration. A native of California, he earned his doctorate at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, where he is currently the editor of Polar Record. He is the author of the critically praised The Myth of the Explorer and editor of the Encyclopedia of the Antarctic. A Selection of the History Book Club "Riffenburgh's perceptive book blends first-hand accounts with original research and a fast-paced narrative, providing a cracking adventure."-The Times Literary Supplement UK "A masterful balance of true drama and first-rate scholarship. The narrative moves with the speed of a novel, while the author's unerring eye for historical detail captures the essence of polar exploration and explorers and locates Shackleton and his men in the grand scheme of empire."-Sir Ranulph Fiennes Also available: HC 1-58234-488-4 ISBN-13: 978-1-58234-488-1 $25.95