Summary of Stephen R. Bown's The Last Viking

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The Italian airship Italia crashed into the ice in 1928, and the crew members survived by huddling on the ice. They were never seen again.
#2 The Norwegian government was planning a rescue expedition, but Mussolini refused all assistance from Norway. The French government approved the use of a Latham twin-engine biplane equipped with pontoons, and a crew, to be put under Amundsen’s command.
#3 Amundsen was the most famous Norwegian explorer, and he was the most famous living explorer in the world in the early twentieth century. He was a skillful publicity seeker who made the rounds of the lecture circuit telling hair-raising tales of his death-defying adventures and geographical conquests.
#4 Amundsen was not a cold and austere man. He was a supreme man of action, and he sold excitement and adventure to the public. He was a towering public figure during the early twentieth century.

Sujets

• Géographie
• Géographie
• Géographie
• Géographie

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 13 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669352846
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Stephen R. Bown's The Last Viking
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13 Insights from Chapter 14 Insights from Chapter 15 Insights from Chapter 16 Insights from Chapter 17 Insights from Chapter 18
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Italian airship Italia crashed into the ice in 1928, and the crew members survived by huddling on the ice. They were never seen again.

#2

The Norwegian government was planning a rescue expedition, but Mussolini refused all assistance from Norway. The French government approved the use of a Latham twin-engine biplane equipped with pontoons, and a crew, to be put under Amundsen’s command.

#3

Amundsen was the most famous Norwegian explorer, and he was the most famous living explorer in the world in the early twentieth century. He was a skillful publicity seeker who made the rounds of the lecture circuit telling hair-raising tales of his death-defying adventures and geographical conquests.

#4

Amundsen was not a cold and austere man. He was a supreme man of action, and he sold excitement and adventure to the public. He was a towering public figure during the early twentieth century.

#5

Amundsen was a natural storyteller who enjoyed writing about his adventures. He was a great entertainer, and his geographical conquests were his art. He was indifferent about dealing with the business aspect of his adventures, and he often spent all his earnings on his next great adventure.

#6

Amundsen was a hero and an adventurer. He was stubborn and intractable, and it was almost impossible to compel him to do anything he didn’t want to do. He was loved by his men, who would sacrifice themselves for him.

#7

Amundsen was a private and secretive man, who rarely discussed things that were not part of his public persona. He was as guarded and circumspect in his private life as he was flamboyant in his public exploits.

#8

Amundsen’s final bow on the international stage was an oddly fitting conclusion to the life and career of the most enigmatic and dynamic of the pioneers of the golden age of polar exploration. His disappearance was a neat conclusion to his adventure-novel life.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The young man who conquered the Northwest Passage could have been destined for a life of sailing and adventure. He was born Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen on July 16, 1872, the fourth and final son of Jens Engebreth Amundsen and Hanna Henrikke Gustava Sahlquist. His mother was the daughter of a middle-class government official.

#2

The Phoenix sailed to the Black Sea in 1856, when the Crimean War pitted Turkey, France, and England against Russia. It was there that Jens met Gustava Sahlquist, whom he would later marry.

#3

Amundsen’s interest in British history was probably due to his mother’s respect for higher education, as she had pinned her desire for one of her sons to pursue a career in medicine on him. But he developed an interest in Arctic exploration.

#4

Amundsen was always dreaming of a glorious future for himself. He had visions of vanquishing geographical chimeras, enduring incredible suffering in the process, and emerging a hero.

#5

Amundsen was maturing at the dawn of the golden age of Norwegian exploration, when national pride spurred heroic exploits not seen for nearly a thousand years. He dreamed of becoming a doctor, but he was a worse than indifferent student.

#6

Amundsen was a serious and principled young man who rarely attended classes. He had a small group of friends, and he led a quiet social life. But he spent most of his time studying and researching the Arctic. He had a large inheritance after his mother’s death, which allowed him to pursue his interests without having to worry about money.

#7

Amundsen was planning an expedition to the North Pole, and he was eager to join one. He sent out applications to several expeditions, but his lack of experience limited his prospects. He organized a ski trip across the vast, uninhabited plateau of Hardangervidda to the sparsely inhabited western mountain ranges.

#8

Amundsen was not deterred by one setback. He signed onto a commercial sealing ship in the summer of 1894 and spent the next several years working on ships around Iceland and Greenland. He liked life in the Arctic Ocean. its bad reputation was an exaggeration.

#9

Amundsen was a reader, and he began reading about polar exploration to learn about the skills he would need to lead an expedition. He concluded that the leaders of previous Arctic expeditions were not ship’s captains, and that they had usually relied on the services of experienced skippers.

#10

Amundsen was planning another ski trip across Hardangervidda, starting from the mountain farm Mogen on the east to the farm called Garen on the west coast. The weather again wreaked havoc on Amundsen’s carefully laid plans. They barely started before they were forced to spend a week holed up in a tiny farmhouse with six peasant farmers, waiting for a ferocious blizzard to peter out.

#11

The brothers set out to ski to the North Pole. It was winter, and the weather was foggy and snowing. They became disoriented, and spent two days wandering in circles. They slept in the open, and when they woke up, they were frozen.

#12

Amundsen learned a lot from these amateur forays, which turned deadly when he made the wrong decisions. It was not an accident that Amundsen became the leading explorer of his age.
Insights from Chapter 3

#1

The polar explorer was becoming a standard fanciful ideal, but one that still reflected Amundsen’s natural characteristics in both personality and appearance.