'Icemen' is the story of the Arctic and the men who tried to conquer it. It is one of the most hostile environments in the world, yet for the last hundred years the Arctic has been a magnet for explorers. The men who came here entered the landscape of another planet - a world of towering ice and howling winds, of eerie fog and beautiful mirages. Some came for glory, some for the wealth and some from the sheer determination to succeed. Many swore they would never return, but for a few the Arctic became an obsession. The conquest or the North Pole attracted men from all corners of the globe in strange flying machines: Victorian Balloons, second hand submarines, flying boats, and airships. Many didn't make it, some died in the attempt, but their bizarre and tragic stories live on. Even today the Artic is steeped in controversy .
Who was the first man to see the North Pole- was it Robert Peary, Frederick Cook or the crew of a Norwegian airship? Did a British Artic expedition really resort to cannibalism? How did a Swedish balloonist meet his death? This book reveals all.
'Iceman' is a fascinating investigation of man's relationship with the Arctic. It not only looks at the history of its exploration, but also examines the region's increasing political significance in the modern age: the secret battles of the Second World War, the military build up during the Cold War and most recently, the bitter disputes between the native peoples and the Canadian government.
