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Book ID: CBB194232936

Science in an Extreme Environment: The 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition (2018)

Clements, Philip William (Author)

University of Pittsburgh Press

ISBN: 9780822945116

Publication Date: 2018
Physical Details: 296 pages
Language: English

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Mountains Science and politics Science and war; science and the military Scientific expeditions 20th century Everest, Mount (China and Nepal) Himalayan Mountains (Nepal)

On February 20, 1963, a team of nineteen Americans embarked on the first expedition that would combine high-altitude climbing with scientific research. The primary objective of the six scientists on the team—who procured funding by appealing to the military and political applications of their work—was to study how severe stress at high altitudes affected human behavior. The expedition would land the first American on the summit of Mount Everest nearly three years after a successful (though widely disputed) Chinese ascent. At the height of the Cold War, this struggle for the Himalaya turned Everest into both a contested political space and a remote, unpredictable laboratory. The US expedition promised to resurrect American heroism, embodied in a show of physical strength and skill that, when combined with scientific expertise, would dominate international rivals on the frontiers of territorial exploration. It propelled mountaineers, scientists, and their test subjects 29,029 feet above sea level, the highest point of Chinese-occupied Tibet. There they faced hostile conditions that challenged and ultimately compromised standard research protocols, yielding results that were too exceptional to be generalized to other environments. With this book, Philip W. Clements offers a nuanced exploration of the impact of extremity on the production of scientific knowledge and the role of masculinity and nationalism in scientific inquiry.

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Reviewed By

Review Dani K. Inkpen (2020) Review of "Science in an Extreme Environment: The 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 215-216). unapi

Review Jordan Bimm (2020) Review of "Science in an Extreme Environment: The 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 121-123). unapi

Review Vanessa Heggie (2018) Review of "Science in an Extreme Environment: The 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition". Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 130-131). unapi

Associated with

Thesis Cathy Gere; Tal Golan; Philip William Clements (2015) Science in extremis: The 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition. University of California, San Diego. unapi

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB194232936/

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