America's foremost expert on wildfire turns to the land without fire, a continent reduced to a single mineral - ice. Pyne spent 3 months in Antarctica as a recipient of the Antarctic Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and he brings a personal perspective to what is at once a geophysical examination, a natural and cultural history and an account of exploration. In discussing Cook's voyages, for example, Pyne reveals how they influenced not only the history of science but also literary works like Moby Dick.
'A masterpiece on Antarctica ... one of the very greatest things written on the cultural history of the earth ever' Simon Schama