Antarctica in the imagination

Long before it was first spotted in 1820, Antarctica has captured imaginations, and the many quests undertaken to explore it never fail to be dramatic adventures. Although Antarctica has been and continues to be studied, many do not know the continent’s past and the challenges it will face in the coming decades. In the three videos below, historian David Day explores three reasons the continent continues to fascinate — its discovery, colonization, and future.

The discovery

Click here to view the embedded video.

The man behind colonization

Click here to view the embedded video.

The future

Click here to view the embedded video.

David Day has been a research fellow at Clare College in Cambridge and a Visiting Professor at University College Dublin, the University of Aberdeen, and the Center for Pacific and American Studies at the University of Tokyo. He is currently a research associate at La Trobe University in Melbourne. He is the author of many books, including Antarctica: A Biography, Conquest: How Societies Overwhelm Others, and the award-winning Claiming a Continent: A History of Australia.

Subscribe to the OUPblog via email or RSS.


Subscribe to only history articles on the OUPblog via email or RSS.

The post Antarctica in the imagination appeared first on OUPblog.

                Related StoriesWhat were the Red Sea Wars?Walter Scott’s anachronismsWhose Odyssey is it anyway?