Ice and Snow in the Cold War: Histories of Extreme Climatic Environments(14 Environment in History: International Perspectives)

The history of the Cold War has focused overwhelmingly on statecraft and military power, an approach that has naturally placed Moscow and Washington center stage. Meanwhile, regions such as Alaska, the polar landscapes, and the cold areas of the Soviet periphery have received little attention. However, such environments were of no small importance during the Cold War: in addition to their symbolic significance, they also had direct implications for everything from military strategy to natural resource management. Through histories of these extremely cold environments, this volume makes a novel intervention in Cold War historiography, one whose global and transnational approach undermines the simple opposition of “East” and “West.”

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations INTRODUCTIONS Exploring Ice and Snow in the Cold War Julia Herzberg, Christian Kehrt, and Franziska Torma Cryo-history: Ice, Snow, and the Great Acceleration Sverker Sörlin PART I: SCIENCE: SITES OF KNOWLEDGE Chapter 1. Snow and Avalanche Research as Patriotic Duty? The Institutionalization of a Scientific Discipline in Switzerland Dania Achermann Chapter 2. “An Orgy of Hypothesizing”: The Construction of Glaciological Knowledge in Cold War America Janet Martin-Nielsen Chapter 3. “Camp Century” and “Project Iceworm”: Greenland as a Stage for US Military Service Rivalries Ingo Heidbrink Chapter 4. Inuit Responses to Arctic Militarization: Examples from East Greenland Sophie Elixhauser PART II: POLITICS OF CONFRONTATION AND COOPERATION Chapter 5. Creating Open Territorial Rights in Cold and Icy Places: Cold War Rivalries and the Antarctic and Outer Space Treaties Roger D. Launius Chapter 6. An Environment Too Extreme? The Case of Bouvetøya Peder Roberts and Lize-Marié van der Watt Chapter 7. Managing the “White Death” in Cold War Soviet Union: Snow Avalanches, Ice Science, and Winter Sports in Kazakhstan, 1960s–1980s Marc Elie PART III: CULTURES AND NARRATIVES OF ICE AND SNOW Chapter 8. Laboratory Metaphors in Antarctic History: From Nature to Space Sebastian Vincent Grevsmühl Chapter 9. Cold War Creatures: Soviet Science and the Problem of the Abominable Snowman Carolin F. Roeder and Gregory Afinogenov Chapter 10. Negotiating “Coldness”: The Natural Environment and Community Cohesion in Cold War Molotovsk-Severodvinsk Ekaterina Emeliantseva Koller Chapter 11. An Exploration of the Self: Reinhold Messner’s Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1989 Pascal Schillings Conclusion: Histories of Extreme Environments beyond the Cold War Julia Herzberg, Christian Kehrt, and Franziska Torma Index

About the Author :
Julia Herzberg is Professor for the Cultural History of Eastern Europe at the University of Leipzig and Deputy Director of the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO).

Review :
“These histories of cold places provide valuable contributions to environmental history, the history of science, and Cold War history. For scholars of Russia and the Soviet Union, it is worth pointing out that the three chapters concentrating on this region are especially rich and insightful.” • Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas “The advantage of the volume is that it transcends the geographical boundaries of the circumpolar areas, which are often associated with cold and extreme. As can be seen from the description, apart from Antarctica, Greenland and the Soviet Arctic, the geography of the collection covers the European Alps and mountain systems of Central Asia. The extended geographic focus allows to see the links between polar and non-polar regions in the history of science and technology and, therefore, to ‘detach’ extreme cold environment from the poles.” • Karaseva “A strong feature of this collection is its detailed research, which serves as the basis for the narratives: several chapters use a microhistorical (as well as a microgeographical) approach and tell us about largely unknown places… Hopefully, this innovative book will invigorate other researchers, including those who study Russian and east European history to further develop a genre of “cryo-history”that is so relevant in today’s world of accelerated Arctic melting.” • Slavic Review “The focus of this very well written volumes, which in parts reads like single-authored, is in most contributions on the systemic competition, be it in the military, winter sports, technology or especially in research.” • H-Soz-Kult “Collectively, the geographically diverse case studies in Ice and Snow in the Cold War address a topic that is important but relatively understudied. The book moves both environmental history and Cold War studies in intriguing new directions.” • Matthew Farish, University of Toronto