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OverviewIn the Anthropocene, the thawing of frozen earth due to global warming has drawn worldwide attention to permafrost. Contemporary scientists define permafrost as ground that maintains a negative temperature for at least two years. But where did this particular conception of permafrost originate, and what alternatives existed? The Life of Permafrost provides an intellectual history of permafrost, placing the phenomenon squarely in the political, social, and material context of Russian and Soviet science. Pey-Yi Chu shows that understandings of frozen earth were shaped by two key experiences in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. On one hand, the colonization and industrialization of Siberia nourished an engineering perspective on frozen earth that viewed the phenomenon as an aggregate physical structure: ground. On the other, a Russian and Soviet tradition of systems thinking encouraged approaching frozen earth as a process, condition, and space tied to planetary exchanges of energy and matter. Aided by the US militarization of the Arctic during the Cold War, the engineering view of frozen earth as an obstacle to construction became dominant. The Life of Permafrost tells the fascinating story of how permafrost came to acquire life as Russian and Soviet scientists studied, named, and defined it. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Pey-Yi ChuPublisher: University of Toronto Press Imprint: University of Toronto Press Dimensions: Width: 16.00cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 23.10cm Weight: 0.560kg ISBN: 9781487501938ISBN 10: 1487501935 Pages: 304 Publication Date: 04 January 2021 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Tertiary & Higher Education , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Temporarily unavailable  The supplier advises that this item is temporarily unavailable. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out to you. Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Historicizing Permafrost 1. Mapping The Cold of Eastern Siberia Birth of a Scientific Object From Boden-Eis to Eisboden 2. Building Colonization and Construction Building on Frozen Earth The Soil Science of Roads The Ambiguity of Merzlota 3. Defining Merzlota as Aggregate Structure Merzlota as Process Personal and Institutional Politics Vechnaia Merzlota in Bolshevik Culture 4. Adapting From Commission to Institute Rhetoric of Transforming Nature Adapting to Frozen Earth Survival of the Systems Approach 5. Translating Birth of Permafrost Criticism and Self-criticism From Merzlotovedenie to Geocryology The Dialectic Persists Epilogue: Resurrecting Glossary BibliographyReviewsThis excellent book makes permafrost a lot more exciting than one might imagine it possibly could be, literally bringing the topic to life. Pey-Yi Chu gives the inanimate permafrost agency in these pages. -- Robert Orttung * Eurasian Geography and Economics, Vol. 62 * The life of 'permafrost' has generated the material for a fine, well-researched, clearly-argued, and deeply-thoughtful book. -- David Moon, University of York * <em>Slavonic and East European Review</em> * This excellent book makes permafrost a lot more exciting than one might imagine it possibly could be, literally bringing the topic to life. Pey-Yi Chu gives the inanimate permafrost agency in these pages. -- Robert Orttung * Eurasian Geography and Economics, Vol. 62 * Author InformationPey-Yi Chu is an associate professor of history at Pomona College. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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