Why read The Last Place on Earth?

Book cover of The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundsen's Race to the South Pole

Book description

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the South Pole was the most coveted prize in the fiercely nationalistic modern age of exploration. In the brilliant dual biography, the award-winning writer Roland Huntford re-examines every detail of the great race to the South Pole between Britain's Robert Scott and Norway's…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Last Place on Earth as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Brenda Clough

Author

Robert Scott was a failure, and beloved for it. He died like a British hero should, gallantly and writing it up in his journal. He, and the four other men who died with him, are memorialized all over Britain: plaques, statues, museums. Huntford is the first modern historian to kick a hole in that mythology, pointing out the many mistakes that Capt. Scott made that, cumulatively, doomed his quest for the South Pole. Was it really sensible, to put cavalry captain Titus Oates in charge of the ponies but then not let him choose the animals? For that matter, ponies?…

From Brenda's list on British explorers freezing to death in Antarctica.