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.

Christian Kehrt is professor of history of science and technology at the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany. His research interests lie in the cultural history of science, technology and the environment.

List of Illustrations

INTRODUCTIONS

Exploring Ice and Snow in the Cold WarJulia Herzberg, Christian Kehrt, and Franziska Torma

Cryo-history: Ice, Snow, and the Great AccelerationSverker Sörlin

PART I: SCIENCE: SITES OF KNOWLEDGE

Chapter 1. Snow and Avalanche Research as Patriotic Duty? The Institutionalization of a Scientific Discipline in SwitzerlandDania Achermann

Chapter 2. An Orgy of Hypothesizing: The Construction of Glaciological Knowledge in Cold War AmericaJanet Martin-Nielsen

Chapter 3. Camp Century and Project Iceworm: Greenland as a Stage for US Military Service RivalriesIngo Heidbrink

Chapter 4. Inuit Responses to Arctic Militarization: Examples from East GreenlandSophie 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 TreatiesRoger D. Launius

Chapter 6. An Environment Too Extreme? The Case of BouvetøyaPeder 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, 1960s1980sMarc Elie

PART III: CULTURES AND NARRATIVES OF ICE AND SNOW

Chapter 8. Laboratory Metaphors in Antarctic History: From Nature to SpaceSebastian Vincent Grevsmühl

Chapter 9. Cold War Creatures: Soviet Science and the Problem of the Abominable SnowmanCarolin F. Roeder and Gregory Afinogenov

Chapter 10. Negotiating Coldness: The Natural Environment and Community Cohesion in Cold War Molotovsk-SeverodvinskEkaterina Emeliantseva Koller

Chapter 11. An Exploration of the Self: Reinhold Messners Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1989Pascal Schillings

Conclusion: Histories of Extreme Environments beyond the Cold WarJulia Herzberg, Christian Kehrt, and Franziska Torma

Index