The Circumpolar North: A Political and Economic Geography of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic

Abstract

A sub-title describes this book as a political and economic geography of the Arctic and sub-Arctic, and it was designed to be more of a text and reference book than as something to be read right through for interest and pleasure. No single reviewer could hope to judge of its accuracy when, for example, the first named author has spent more of his life than, probably, any other English speaker studying the available Russian literature on the subject. After an introductory chapter describing how the area is defined and its physical and biological characteristics (including the interesting observation that species are few but numbers in each species large), individual chapters then describe in detail, following a common pattern, the northern USSR, Canada, Alaska, Greenland, and the northern old world including the sub-Arctic islands. The final chapters then describe the circumpolar oceans with special reference to conflict and cooperation between the major powers and the place of the circumpolar north in world affairs. Each of the main regional chapters describes the geographical background, the history of exploration and development, the mineral and other resources, the population, social conditions, administration, and transport. Space does not allow of a detailed review of these, but one aspect is worth mentioning. To many readers the most interesting parts of the book may well be the accounts of the conflicts caused in different areas by the development of the north's resources and military installations and the effect on the local population of an invasion of sophisticated newcomers. The differing circumstances of Greenland, a protectorate where the native population has remained the majority under an administration dedicated for 200 years to their emergence rather than to colonization and profits; Canada and Alaska, where a social conscience about what was happening to the local minority population as a result of development, is a recent phenomenon; and the northern USSR, where the much larger numbers and smaller differences between the existing and incoming populations created a different situation, are well brought out and make fascinating reading. As the authors say, it is a pity that we are not able to get some account from those areas where a minority local population has created the same problems for the Russians; their experience could have helped others. There are a number of useful tables and some text maps in one colour, but no illustrations. The book would be more attractive, and not necessarily much more expensive, with a multi-coloured end map. If, as seems likely in such an authoritative work of reference, there is a second edition, it is to be hoped that the authors will, in planning this, look around for (or design themselves) a suitable map of the north polar region, and share the cost with the publisher of an atlas in which it could also appear. John Wright