Audio only
To the Edges of the Earth
1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of ExplorationBy Edward J. LarsonNarrated by Paul Michael GarciaLength12h 5m
About this audiobook
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, an entwined narrative of the most adventurous year of all time, when three expeditions simultaneously raced to the top, bottom, and heights of the world.
As 1909 dawned, the greatest jewels of exploration—set at the world’s frozen extremes—lay unclaimed: the North and South Poles and the so-called “Third Pole,” the pole of altitude, located in unexplored heights of the Himalaya. Before the calendar turned, three expeditions had faced death, mutiny, and the harshest conditions on the planet to plant flags at the furthest edges of the Earth.
In the course of one extraordinary year, Americans Robert Peary and Matthew Henson were hailed worldwide at the discovers of the North Pole; Britain’s Ernest Shackleton had set a new geographic “Furthest South” record, while his expedition mate, Australian Douglas Mawson, had reached the Magnetic South Pole; and at the roof of the world, Italy’s Duke of the Abruzzi had attained an altitude record that would stand for a generation, the result of the first major mountaineering expedition to the Himalaya's eastern Karakoram, where the daring aristocrat attempted K2 and established the standard route up the most notorious mountain on the planet.
Based on extensive archival and on-the-ground research, Edward J. Larson weaves these narratives into one thrilling adventure story. Larson, author of the acclaimed polar history Empire of Ice, draws on his own voyages to the Himalaya, the arctic, and the ice sheets of the Antarctic, where he himself reached the South Pole and lived in Shackleton’s Cape Royds hut as a fellow in the National Science Foundations’ Antarctic Artists and Writers Program.
These three legendary expeditions, overlapping in time, danger, and stakes, were glorified upon their return, their leaders celebrated as the preeminent heroes of their day. Stripping away the myth, Larson, a master historian, illuminates one of the great, overlooked tales of exploration, revealing the extraordinary human achievement at the heart of these journeys.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.9 (1.1K)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph, LibraryThing
GenreHistory, Biography and Memoir
Length12 hrs 5 mins
Narrated byPaul Michael Garcia
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateMar 13, 2018
LanguageEnglish
More from Edward J. Larson
The Redeemer’s ReturnArthur W. Pink13h 18m4.7 (589)$20
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Annotated)Howard Irving Chapelle, Tappan Adney13h 9m4.8 (150)$0.99 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m4.6 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h4.6 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m4.6 (2.3K)$20
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
The Red Record (Annotated)Ida B. Wells-Barnett5h 19m4.8 (102)$0.99 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m4.6 (159.1K)$15
EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m4.6 (40.8K)$20
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m4.7 (2.8K)$24 · $0.00
Send MeMarty Skovlund, Joe Kent8h 10m4.7 (1.6K)$26 · $0.00
Left for DeadEbony Canion5h 34m4.7 (2.2K)$17
John Muir: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth & Letters to a Friend (Annotated)John Muir10h 13m4.7 (1.1K)$0.99 · $0.00
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m4.7 (3.2K)$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m4.7 (5K)$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
A Bridge Not Too FarDeepak Ohri4h 55m4.8 (179)$15
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
Scandal Between the Sheets & Stranded with the Tempting StrangerBrenda Jackson9h 22m4.8 (141)$24 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (384)$20 · $0.00
The Boys and MeMark Miller8h 32m4.8 (218)$23
Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m4.6 (6.5K)$26 · $0.00
You may also like
Shackleton in the Antarctic, Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907 - 1909Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton6h 24m4.4 (668)$2.30
Farthest North (The Complete Two-Volume Edition) (Annotated)Fridtjof Nansen31h 50m4.4 (865)$2 · $0.00
The Adventures of Zenas Leonard, Fur Trader & Trapper (1831-1836)Zenas Leonard, Joseph Meek7h 9m4.1 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
Vitus Bering: the Discoverer of Bering StraitPeter Lauridsen6h 59m$2 · $0.00
Uncover Exciting HistoryAmy Puetz4h 20m$15
The Ascent of Mount St. Elias, AlaskaFilippo De Filippi4h 56m$6 · $0.00
Mediæval BywaysL. F. Salzman2h 20m4.0 (39)$2 · $0.00
Masters of the Deep – 3 Classic Navigator BiographiesEdmund Gosse, William Clark Russell, William Henry Giles Kingston25h 23m$1
The American History for BeginnersD. H. Montgomery5h 56m4.0 (206)$1 · $0.00
Australia Twice Traversed (Annotated)Ernest Giles21h 44m4.6 (11)$2 · $0.00
Captain Cook's Journal During His First Voyage Round the WorldJames Cook18h 32m3.9 (450)$1 · $0.00
Explorers and TravellersA. W. Greely10h 1m$2 · $0.00
The Murray RiverArthur active 19th century Kinloch1h 33m$2 · $0.00
MOUNT EVEREST - The First Expedition of 1921 (Illustrated Edition) (Annotated)Charles Kenneth Howard-Bury13h 56m4.0 (39)$2 · $0.00
Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia (Annotated)Ludwig Leichhardt12h 2m4.1 (21)$0.99 · $0.00
Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World made in H.M. bark "Endeavour"James Cook21h 56m3.9 (444)$1 · $0.00
The North-West Passage by landWalter B. Cheadle, William Fitzwilliam Viscount Milton11h 33m4.4 (24)$2 · $0.00
Alexander von Humboldt: A short biography5 Minutes, 5 Minute Biographies, George Fritsche7m$1 · $0.00
The Fur Country, Or, Seventy Degrees North LatitudeJules Verne14h 11m$2.30
Explorations in AustraliaJohn McDouall Stuart10h 3m3.3 (17)$1 · $0.00