Sign-In
Cart
Svalbard: A History of the Cold Edge
Paperback
Arctic HistoryInternational RelationsScandinavian History
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jun 8 2026
Pages: 162
Weight: 0.45
Height: 0.41 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Far above Norway, closer to the North Pole than to Oslo, lies Svalbard: a frozen archipelago of glaciers, polar bears, abandoned mines and contested history.
For centuries it belonged to no one. Then everyone came.
Dutch explorers searching for a route to China found jagged mountains rising from the Arctic sea. Whalers followed, turning the bays red with blood and boiling blubber on the shore. Russian Pomor hunters wintered in darkness, trappers stalked fox and bear across the ice, and scientists came north to measure a world few people had seen. When coal was discovered beneath the frozen ground, Svalbard became something more dangerous: a prize.
From the doomed voyages of Willem Barentsz to the blubber towns of the seventeenth century, from Russian hunting camps and polar expeditions to the Svalbard Treaty, Nazi raids, Soviet mining towns, Cold War suspicion and today's warming frontier, this is the story of an Arctic no-man's-land that became one of the strangest strategic territories on earth.
Norway governs it. Russia still has rights there. The treaty forbids warlike use. The ice is retreating. The old certainties are melting with it.
Svalbard: A History of the Cold Edge is a gripping account of survival, greed, law, empire and climate at the top of the world - a place once seen as empty, but never truly free from ambition.
Also in
Arctic History
In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette
Sides, Hampton
Paperback
Erebus: One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time
Palin, Michael
Paperback
The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundsen's Race to the South Pole, Revised and Updated
Huntford, Roland
Paperback
Leading at The Edge: Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition
Perkins, Dennis
Paperback
To the Edges of the Earth: 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration
Larson, Edward J.
Paperback
The Ice Diaries: The True Story of One of Mankind's Greatest Adventures
Anderson, William R.
Paperback
South: The Illustrated Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-1917
Shackleton, Ernest Henry, Sir
Paperback
Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on the World's Greatest Scientific Expedition
Bown, Stephen R.
Hardcover
Farthest North: The Incredible Three-Year Voyage to the Frozen Latitudes of the North
Nansen, Fridtjof
Paperback
The Ice at the End of the World: An Epic Journey Into Greenland's Buried Past and Our Perilous Future
Gertner, Jon
Paperback
Greenland at War: The United States, Germany and the Struggle for the Arctic, 1939-45
Harmsen, Peter
Paperback
The North Pole and Inner Earth Chronicles
Byrd, Admiral Richard E.
Emerson, Willis George
Jansen, Olaf
Paperback
Edible and Medicinal Arctic Plants: An Inuit Elder's Perspective
Hainnu, Rebecca
Ziegler, Anna
Joamie, Aalasi
Paperback
In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic
Albanov, Valerian
Paperback
The Man Who Ate His Boots: The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage
Brandt, Anthony
Paperback
Resolute: John Franklin's Lost Expedition and the Discovery of the Queen's Ghost Ship
Sandler, Martin W.
Paperback
To the Ends of the Earth: The Truth Behind the Glory of Polar Exploration
Dippel, John H. V.
Hardcover
South! (Unabridged. with 97 original illustrations): The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-1917
Shackleton, Ernest
Hardcover
Endurance. La Prisión Blanca: El Legendario Viaje de Shackleton Al Polo Sur / Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Lansing, Alfred
Paperback
The Southern Frontier: Australia, Antarctica and Empire in the Southern Ocean World
Howitt, Rohan
Paperback
Life Lessons from Explorers: Learn How to Weather Life's Storms from History's Greatest Explorers
Aston, Felicity
Hardcover
Kappianaqtut: Strange Creatures and Fantastic Beings from Inuit Myths and Legends, Second Edition
Christopher, Neil
Flaherty, Louise
Paperback
Worlds Beyond the Poles (Heathen Edition): Physical Continuity of the Universe
Giannini, Francis Amadeo
Paperback
Inventio Fortunata: Arctic Exploration, With An Account Of Nicholas Of Lynn
Decosta, Benjamin Franklin
Paperback
The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the Fram, 1910-1912
Amundsen, Captain Roald
Paperback
History of Greenland: How Inuit cultures, Norse Settlers, And Global Powers Shaped An Arctic Land
Johnson, Victor G.
Paperback
Explorations in the Icy North: How Travel Narratives Shaped Arctic Science in the Nineteenth Century
Kaalund, Nanna Katrine Lüders
Hardcover
Irresistible North: From Venice to Greenland on the Trail of the Zen Brothers
Di Robilant, Andrea
Paperback
Worlds Beyond the Poles (Heathen Edition): Physical Continuity of the Universe
Giannini, Francis Amadeo
Hardcover
Inventio Fortunata: Arctic Exploration, With An Account Of Nicholas Of Lynn
Decosta, Benjamin Franklin
Hardcover
Vodka in a Vegemite Jar: An Australian on a Soviet Antarctic Expedition
Hamley, Trevor Colin
Paperback
Arctic Adaptations: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia
Krupnik, Igor
Paperback
Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson--A Tale of Mutiny and Murder in the Arctic
Mancall, Peter C.
Paperback
The Hidden Life of Ice: Dispatches from a Disappearing World
Tedesco, Marco
Flores d'Arcais, Alberto
Hardcover
Canada and the Changing Arctic: Sovereignty, Security, and Stewardship
Lackenbauer, P. Whitney
Griffiths, Franklyn
Huebert, Rob
Paperback
In the Lena Delta: A Narrative of the Search for Lieut.-Commander De Long and His Companions, Followed by an Account of the Greely Relief
Philips, Melville
Melville, George Wallace
Paperback
The Joint Arctic Weather Stations: Science and Sovereignty in the High Arctic, 1946-1972
Lackenbauer, P. Whitney
Heidt, Daniel
Paperback
The Hidden Witchcraft of the Canary Islands: Ancient Knowledge and living magic
González Padilla Raíz, Ayose Himar
Paperback
The Frozen Echo: Greenland and the Exploration of North America, Ca. A.D. 1000-1500
Seaver, Kirsten A.
Paperback
Eric The Red And The Viking Age: A Narrative History of Norse Exile, Greenland Settlement, Atlantic Exploration, And Survival
Johnson, Victor G.
Paperback
The Greatest Show in the Arctic: The American Exploration of Franz Josef Land, 1898-1905 Volume 82
Capelotti, P. J.
Hardcover
Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait: To Co-Operate With the Polar Expeditions: Performed in His Majesty's Ship Blossom, Under th
Beechey, Frederick William
Hardcover
Andree's Balloon Expedition in Search of the North Pole
Lachambre and Machuron, Henri Alexis
Paperback
Roshier H. Creecy A Black Man's Search for Freedom and Prosperity in the Koyukuk Gold Fields of Alaska
Merritt, Margaret F.
Hardcover
The Heart of the Antarctic (Annotated, Large Print): Vol I and II (Large Print Edition)
Shackleton, Ernest
Paperback
The Worst Journey in the World, Antarctic, 1910-1913 Volume; Volume 1
1886-1959, Cherry-Garrard Apsley
Paperback
From Franklin to Nansen: Tales of Arctic Adventure. With Numerous Illustrations
Scott, G. Firth
Paperback
Alaska Native Women: Ending the Violence, Reclaiming a Sacred Status
Demmert, Michelle
Truett Jerue, Tami
O'Gara, Debra
Paperback
Shackleton's Three Miracles: Bilingual Yiddish-English Translation of the Endurance Expedition
Shackleton, Ernest
Paperback
South! (97 Original illustrations) The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-1917
Shackleton, Ernest
Paperback
On the Arctic Frontier: Ernest Leffingwell's Polar Explorations and Legacy
Collins, Janet R.
Paperback
Discovery at Prudhoe Bay: Mountain Men and Seismic Vision Drilled Black Gold
Sweet, John M.
Paperback
Little America: Aerial Exploration in the Antarctic: The Flight to the South Pole
Byrd, Richard Evelyn
Hardcover
The Heart of the Antarctic (Annotated, Large Print): Vol I and II (Large Print Edition)
Shackleton, Ernest
Hardcover
Inuit Mythology: Forgotten Arctic Creatures, Sea Deities, and Ancestral Beliefs
Lambert, Sarah
Paperback
The Arctic Home In The Vedas: Being Also A New Key To The Interpretation Of Many Vedic Texts And Legends...
Tilak, Bal Gangadhar
Paperback
The Worst Journey in the World, Antarctic, 1910-1913 Volume; Volume 2
1886-1959, Cherry-Garrard Apsley
Hardcover
The Worst Journey in the World, Antarctic, 1910-1913 Volume; Volume 1
1886-1959, Cherry-Garrard Apsley
Hardcover