Very enjoyable and having read books about other arctic and antarctic explorations I wondered if this would hold me. It more than did and I think most anyone who likes to read non fiction adventure stories will appreciate reading this one. ( )

There is nothing quite like a thoroughly researched, well-paced, well written non-fiction account of some jaw-dropping event that it seems hardly possible actually happened. Such books are inevitably difficult to put down and ‘The Kingdom of Ice’ is an exemplar of the genre. Hampton Sides (who has an Arctic explorer-esque name himself) recounts the extraordinary voyage of the USS Jeannette, whose crew intended to reach the North Pole. But wait, you might ask, how were they supposed to get there in a boat? It seems that in the 1870s a popular theory, espoused by some otherwise well-regarded scientists, held that there was a warm ocean at the North Pole surrounded by a circle of ice. The rationale for this bizarre hypothesis was that warm currents such as the gulf stream converged there. The experiences of the USS Jeanette were to comprehensively debunk this idea. The crew aimed to break through the supposed circle of ice via the Bering Strait, rather than trying to reach the pole via Greenland as previous unsuccessful expeditions had.

Sides carefully puts the reader on tenterhooks by extended scene-setting and background for the voyage, its funder, and its crew. As generally seemed to be the case for polar explorers, everyone involved was at least a little eccentric. The newspaper millionaire who funded the expedition was such a memorably odd person that his name is apparently the origin of the exclamation, “Gordon Bennett!” I always wondered where that came from – it was something I picked up from my Nana. Such fascinating tidbits are to be found throughout the text, to the point that I wondered why I’d never heard of the Jeanette expedition before. (Probable explanations include: I’d come across mentions but forgotten about them, successful expeditions loom largest in history, and British museums like to imply that British men did all the exploring.) The writing style is a great mixture of journalistic and historical, conveying the risk and danger of events without hyperbole or sensationalism. The use of letters from the expedition captain’s wife to her absent husband throughout the narrative is well-judged and moving. I also appreciated the liberal inclusion of maps. It gets on my nerves when accounts of long journeys limit the reader to a single map, sometimes even relegated to the endpapers. Maps provide a welcome sense of perspective to the distances described.

I’ve got two paragraphs in without mentioning the outcome of the expedition itself, nor the fates of the men on it. This is a deliberate choice: I began the book without knowing anything about what happened and thus found it a thrilling, enthralling tale. I will mention that the Jeannette doesn’t manage to sail to the North Pole, which is hardly a surprise. The actual outcome of the expedition is chastening as an example of Western hubris during the exploration age, as well as exciting as a tale of humans pushed to their limits. There is an edge of dark humour also, particularly evident in Captain de Long’s diary of the voyage. He displayed an incredible gift for understatement, reducing the most appalling circumstances imaginable to deadpan phrases like, ‘Our outlook was not encouraging’. The account is equally fascinating as a historical snapshot. The USS Jeanette took with them prototypes of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and Edison’s arc lights, both of which failed to function in freezing Arctic temperatures. The adventurous inclinations of some of the crew were seemingly stoked by having been slightly too young to fight in the American Civil War. Yet there is an oddly contemporary feel about the media obsession with the expedition and its fate. Transatlantic telegraph cables already allowed the expedition’s sponsor to run his New York newspaper from Paris; Bennett was at the vanguard of international news, sending reporters worldwide in search of exciting stories. As well as history, this a vivid portrait of a unique geography. If you have any interest in snowy wastes, as I most definitely do, descriptions of places like Wrangel Land will beguile you.

Finally, I approved of Sides’ comment that the warm Polar sea theory may have been dead wrong in the late 19th century, but at the rate greenhouse gas emissions are accumulating in the atmosphere, temperatures are rising, and polar ice is melting, it may yet become true. ‘In the Kingdom of Ice’ was a moving, informative, generally very high quality piece of escapist non-fiction. Thank you Rae for recommending it to me! ( )

Excellent. With a story like this, how you organize and. Present the facts is everything. Sides slowly builds interest, developing the chars ters, making you care about what happens to them, and then taking you along for the trip ( )

An entertaining and mostly thrilling account of this famous arctic adventure. Some of the preliminary and by the way material seemed gratuitous, but maybe I was just eager for the story to begin. The story of the idea of the open polar sea is another fascinating look at what we are willing to believe strongly despite all evidence to the contrary.
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It has occurred to me, since I wrote this review, and as Christmas approaches and I read Chris Van Allsburg's Polar Express to my grandson, that the idea of a mystical place at the north pole where Santa Claus can work with his elves, might be somehow tied up not just with the north pole's remoteness, but also with these other 19th century ideas about what might be there (e.g. a hole into the center of the earth and prehistoric creatures). ( )

This was a fascinating voyage. I could not put it down. ( )

What a fascinating historical account of an attempt to find the North Pole in the late 1800's! I love a good outdoor adventure story, and this one is well told by Mr. Sides. It would have been five stars except there was just a bit too much set up for my taste, but the book title really exemplifies the second half of the story, and it was riveting.

Captain de Long and his 33 person crew attempt to sail a specially fortified ship, the Jeannette, to the North Pole. Unfortunately, one of the main theories of the time was that the North Pole was surrounded by a warmer circle of ocean, and if you could just break through the ice barrier and get to that part of the ocean, all would be well. So that's what the Jeannette tried to do, and needless to say, it wasn't smooth sailing.

A subplot of the book is the touching love story between the captain and his wife as revealed through her letters to him.

I look forward to reading more books by this author. His account was detailed (perhaps sometimes too detailed), but very well told. ( )

This is one of the best non-fiction books I have read. The author weaves together the stories of the people involved in the polar voyage of the USS Jeannette, some of whom are very colorful characters. He also draws a vivid picture in the mind's eye of what life was like during the 1890s, both culturally and scientifically. He provides many arctic theories that were, at the time, widely accepted, but now seem incredulous that anyone could have believed them to be true. This book highlights the admirable leadership qualities of explorer George De Long, and the depths of hardship and adversity he and his crew faced during this arduous journey. It seems a shame that this voyage is not more widely known. Highly recommended. ( )

A wonderfully written and engaging story of the USS Jeannette. A MUST READ for any lovers of American History, World Exploration, Environmental History, and lovers of sea voyages of old. ( )

Very enjoyable. I had been wondering if I could read history books without Chicago-style citations on every page. It turns out that when you don't try to be hip and appeal to the kids, or needlessly add drama to every single event, it's much more bearable.

Sure, there's drama, but it all feels very serious knowing that peoples' lives really were on the line. Finding the source of lead poisoning, watching the probable progression of syphilis, finding land and then food...

My only big critique is that there was a bit too much time spent in the setup - Bennett, Petermann, and the USS Collins didn't need quite so much background. It's fully a third of the length of the book before the Arctic expedition actually begins, though the reader at this point is at least casually familiar with all of the ship's officers.

It's quite incredible how much effort De Long put into preserving the records of the ship. One wonders if dropping natural specimens earlier would have helped their stamina and given them a few more days and more of a chance. But it's an absurdly well-documented trip, with many people keeping records up until almost the moment of their death. One wonders if Petermann's bad Arctic maps (though nobody had good ones) were part of the cause of false hope.

Towards the end, this was very hard reading. Knowing the fate of most of the men, I still couldn't help rooting for them, or that history would change to reward their herculean efforts to get back to civilization. The surfeit of documentation kind of worked against me here - everybody wrote about it, so they must have lived to talk about it. ( )

2nd book in a row about late 19th century America. Although it's not a topic I would have chosen for myself, I did find it an interesting story. Impossible not to feel superior to these guys a century later. The author says exploring the polar regions were sort of a world obsession, but what was actually there was entirely conjectural. A sea of warm water without ice, Atlantis, a hole going to the center of the earth, etc. You know reality is going to intrude on the main characters before the end of the book, and it won't be pretty. Well worth the time. ( )

Hampton Sides recent book "In the Kingdom of Ice" tells the story of a failed nineteenth century quest to reach the North Pole aboard the USS Jeannette. While the story revolves primarily on the officers and men of the ship, Mr. Sides also includes background on several other significant individuals relevant to the exploration, one being James Gordon Bennett, owner of the New York Herald and prime funder of the voyage, and a German cartographer August Petermann. Bennett was an eccentric society figure, who believed that newspapermen should be making the news as well as reporting the news, and hoped an Arctic expedition to the Pole would make great headlines for his paper. Petermann was an eminent geographer of the era, and one who pushed the idea that a small ring of ice surrounded the North Pole, which would be located in a warm polar sea. (With the benefit of current knowledge, it's interesting to see what "experts" believed about unknown lands some 150 years ago).

If your knowledge of polar discoveries and the subtitle of the book (Terrible Polar Voyage) didn't already give it away, the expedition failed in its mission. The adventure of the book is more in the attempt to stay alive and return to civilization after the ship became locked in the Arctic ice, and Mr. Sides provides a wealth of information about the hardship of trying to return.

While I believe that Mr. Sides did an excellent job of pulling the information about the ill-fated USS Jeannette together, the story still falls somewhat short of two of my favorite lost-ship adventures, those being Nathaniel Philbrick's "In the Heart of the Sea", and Caroline Alexander's "The Endurance".

( )

nonfiction (doomed north pole excursion; arctic shipwreck/survival). Very readable narrative account of the voyage of the USS Jeannette.

What became of them?
Twenty-five men lock'd in ice,
'Twas no Paradise. ( )

I listened to the audibook. It was informative, entertaining, and I suggest it for anyone interested in history. ( )

Extraordinary book! Highly recommend. ( )

In the 1880's, an expedition to be the first to reach the North Pole discovered the true immensity of the polar region with disastrous consequences. ( )

One of my favorite genres is non-fiction, exploration accounts. From Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage (Lewis and Clark) to Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Alan Morehead’s White Nile and Blue Nile, accounts of the travails faced by explorers have always fascinated me.

One subset of this genre is polar exploration. I’ve read several works whose subject was the Northwest Passage and the Franklin Expedition. I’ve read of the journeys of Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance and the race to the South Pole, involving Norwegian Roald Amundsen and Englishman Robert Falcon Scott. In all of these works, many of which detailed the history of polar exploration, I do not recall ever hearing of the Jeanette Expedition of 1880, the subject of this book. This is somewhat surprising, because it seems to have been something of a seminal event in the exploration of the northern polar regions.

At the time, little was known of the polar regions. Many surmised that the northern pole was covered by a warm sea, encircled by a girdle of ice which merely had to be pierced in order to access the ice free sea. The Franklin Expedition had previously been lost seeking a Northwest Passage, but attempts to sail to the northern pole were very few, and dismal failures.

In the late 1870s, an American naval officer George De Long, teamed up with the owner of the New York Herald, James Gordon Bennett to finance and outfit an expedition to explore the polar region and attempt a sea-based journey to the North Pole. Supported by the U. S. Navy and assisted by many of the leading “experts” on polar exploration, the group purchased a suitable craft, retrofitted it and provisioned it, departing from San Francisco headed north for the Bering Strait.

As it turns out, almost everything they were told to expect was wrong. Their maps were almost universally inaccurate and they were soon captured by the pack ice. This book details all of the preparations for the trip, the personalities involved and the brutal results of their journey. After finishing the book, I am somewhat astonished that I have never seen reference to the expedition, even in passing. It is an amazing and compelling story of human endurance and tragedy. I recommend it not just for those who have an interest in polar exploration, but for anyone who enjoys history and/or human interest stories in general. ( )

Wow. To think this happened only 140ish years ago - and that just a shift of events either ahead or back a smidge likely would have changed the confluence of events. I'm amazed that even one boat made it to safety - and a compass certainly would have assisted De Long much better than the sextant, assuming he had some idea of where he landed in the Lena Delta ( )

I have read a lot of books on Arctic expedition disasters and shipwrecks, but "In the Kingdom of Ice" was definitely a page turner. I especially appreciated the historical references incorporated into the storyline. These tidbits, such as, the origins of the U.S. Open, the early renditions of the electric light bulb, formation of the U.S. Coast Guard, etc, helped ground me into the time period. ( )

I love a good story about polar expeditions and Hampton Sides' "In the Kingdom of Ice: The grand and terrible polar voyage of the USS Jeannette" was excellent.

It took a little while to really get going. However, once the story really starts moving along Sides does a great job of telling the story of the doomed ship and differentiating a crew so they each have a memorable personality. It's really masterful storytelling and a great read.

Manages the difficult task of being equal parts bonkers, captivating, and tragic. Very hard to put down once you get into it. ( )

4.5 stars

In the late 19th century, Captain De Long paired up with the owner of the New York Herald (who funded the trip) to sail the USS Jeannette to the North Pole. At the time (though no one had yet been there), some people thought that once you pushed past the ice, there was warmer and open water. De Long, armed with maps (many of which were simply incorrect) from German cartographer Petermann, took off on the multi-year voyage with 32 other men to sail through to the ice-free section and the North Pole. Without wanting to give too much away, this would prove to be incredibly dangerous.

This was amazing! Some of the background information near the start of the book, particularly about Bennett (who funded the trip), wasn’t as interesting, but it wasn’t uninteresting, either. I seem to be fascinated by survival stories (though I’m about the opposite of a risk-taker, myself - I’ll just read about it, thanks!). This one read like fiction and it kept me wanting to keep reading to find out what happened next. It is nonfiction, so it really happened, but I honestly didn’t know how it would turn out, so I was riveted! ( )

A superb book although I did find the introductory chapters that covered off the history of Polar expeditions, the public interest, financing, and preparing somewhat dull. But once the ship got underway it was gripping.

In all the expeditions such as this I’d never heard of this one. Pity, as its scope considering where it started and ended, without spoiler alerts, is mind boggling.

Eventually, most worthwhile. ( )

Joy's review: This is non-fiction at it's best! Sides makes the story of this audacious journey a gripping read. Attempting to sail to the North Pole in 1879, the Jeanette quickly gets locked in the ice. Sides paints vivid pictures of the crew and their courage, suffering, and, sometimes, insanity. Context and preparations are interestingly described without unnecessary detours. This a great book for anyone who loves adventure tales as well as history buffs and fans of the Arctic. ( )

Reminds me of endeavoring to publish. ( )

In the summer of 1879, with a crew of 32, the USS Jeannette set sail for the arctic waters, to map a course to the north pole. If the Jeannette succeeds, it would be the first mission to do so. An extremely dangerous voyage, due to the unpredictable and unrelenting ice pack.
Shortly, after arriving in the northern waters, near the Bering Strait, the Jeannette was trapped. They were stuck there for two years until the hull was finally breached and the crew was forced to abandon ship and march across the ice. A thousand miles away from Siberia, battling the cold, starvation, snow blindness, injuries and polar bears. Did they survive? You will have to read it, to find out. These lips are sealed.
This is a harrowing, incredibly thrilling adventure tale, meticulously researched and written, by one of my favorite nonfiction authors. ( )