Review ofScott's last biscuit: the literature of polar exploration, by Sarah Moss

Abstract

Fifty years ago, George Bass revolutionized maritime archaeology with the observation that it was far simpler to train an archaeologist to be a scuba diver than it was to turn a scuba diver into an underwater archaeologist. One is tempted to make a similar observation about literary theorists writing polar history while reading this interesting volume. It is not that scuba divers cannot perform underwater archaeology; it is just that one set of skills cannot be learned nearly as quickly as the other.