The ice and the inland : Mawson, Flynn, and the myth of the frontier
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The ice and the inland : Mawson, Flynn, and the myth of the frontier
Melbourne University Press, 2002
Available at 2 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 196-213) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The Ice and the Inland is a fascinating study of how the frontier became etched in the Australian imagination in the early twentieth century in the image of folk heroes such as Douglas Mawson, legendary Antarctic explorer, and John Flynn, founder of the outback Flying Doctor Service. The frontier promised national renewal in the form of racial virility, heroism and an encounter with 'wild' nature. Thus the frontier mythology of the early twentieth century laid the groundwork for the wilderness cult of contemporary Australian life. This book is unique in many ways. Most frontier histories in Australia have focused on race relations; this is the first to focus on the frontier as an ecological phenomenon. It draws on rich primary sources, many of which have never been published, including Antarctic diaries and the letters and journalism of John Flynn. It offers a rich contextualisation of these primary sources in international scholarship on such topics as imperial adventure literature, the rural life movement, population theory, eugenics and the cult of polar exploration. It sets out a comparison of two Australian folk heroes with nearly identical life spans and analyses the reasons for their popularity. And it uncovers the international links of both Antarctic exploration and Flynn's Australian Inland Mission, both of which drew on imperial and trans-Pacific influences, which Brigid Hain traces in detail. Fascinating and wonderfully written, The Ice and the Inland will attract readers interested in the appeal of national icons, the continuing narrative power of stories of exploration and adventure, and the appeal of wilderness as a concept.
by "Nielsen BookData"