The International Polar Years and the International Geophysical Year represented a remarkable international collaborative scientific effort that was focused on, but not limited to, understanding the Earth's poles. This groundbreaking collection redresses the surprising failure of historians to explore beyond even a cursory manner the richness of the IPYs and IGY as sites of historical and scientific study. In doing so, it illuminates critical aspects of the last 150 years of international scientific endeavour.
Introduction: 'Rise of a Global Scientific Inquiry: The International Polar and Geophysical Years'; R.D.Launius, D.H.DeVorkin & J.R.Fleming
PART I: MEANINGS, INTERPRETATIONS, AND HISTORIOGRAPHY A Polar Perspective; M.A.Dennis Making Science Global? Coordinated Enterprises in Nineteenth-Century Science; M.Rothenberg Publishing Arctic Science in the Nineteenth Century: The Case of the First International Polar Year; P.N.Cronenwett Toward the Poles: A Historiography of Scientific Exploration during the International Polar Years and the International Geophysical Year; R.D.Launius
PART II: NATIONAL CASE STUDIES Going Global in Polar Exploration: Nineteenth-Century American and British Nationalism and Peacetime Science; C.Carter Swedish Polar Policies from the First International Polar Year to the Present; L.Lewander The Polar Years and Japan; W.R.Stevenson III China and the International Geophysical Year; Z.Wang & J.Zhang
PART III: NETWORKED PERSONALITIES AND PROGRAMS Approaching the Southern Hemisphere: The German Pathway in the Nineteenth Century; C.Ludecke Sydney Chapman: Dynamo behind the International Geophysical Year; G.A.Good Lloyd Berkner and the International Geophysical Year Proposal in Context: With Some Comments on the Implications for the Comite Speciale de l'Annee Geophysique Internationale, CSAGI, Request for Launching Earth Orbiting Satellites; A.A.Needell Polar and Global Meteorology in the Career of Harry Wexler, 1933--1962; J.R.Fleming
PART IV: NATIONAL ROLES FOR INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE: QUESTS AND QUESTIONS IN THE INTERNATIONAL GEOPHYSICAL YEAR Science, Environment, and Sovereignty: The International Geophysical Year in the Antarctic Peninsula; A.Howkins The International Geophysical Year in Antarctica: A Triumph of 'Apolitical' Science, Politics, and Peace; D.Olson Belanger Tracking Diplomacy: The International Geophysical Year and American Scientific and Technical Exchange with East Asia; T.Muir-Harmony Geodesy, Time, and the Markowitz Moon Camera Program: An Interwoven International Geophysical Year Story; S.J.Dick
PART V: LEGACIES OF GLOBAL SCIENCE: SPACE SCIENCE, ANTHROPOLOGY, AND EARTH SCIENCE The International Geophysical Year and Planetary Science; E.M.Conway Polar Politics, Historical Narratives, and Saami Prehistory; N.D.Broadbent Stratospheric Ozone Depletion, Greenhouse Gases, since the International Geophysical Year: F. Sherwood Rowland and the Evolution of Earth Science; D.M.Thamattoor
ROGER D. LAUNIUS Senior Curator in the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C, USA. JAMES R. FLEMING Professor of Science, Technology and Society at Colby College, Maine, USA. DAVID DEVORKIN Senior Curator, Astronomy and the Space Sciences, at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C, USA.