Extreme North: A Cultural History
Description
Scholars and laymen alike have long projected their fantasies onto the great expanse of the global North, whether it be as a frozen no-man's-land, an icy realm of marauding Vikings, or an unspoiled cradle of prehistoric human life. Bernd Brunner reconstructs the encounters of adventurers, colonists, and indigenous communities that led to the creation of a northern cabinet of wonders and imbued Scandinavia, Iceland, and the Arctic with a perennial mystique. Like the mythological sagas that inspired everyone from Wagner to Tolkien, Extreme North explores both the dramatic vistas of the Scandinavian fjords and the murky depths of a Western psyche obsessed with Nordic whiteness. In concise but thoroughly researched chapters, Brunner highlights the cultural and political fictions at play from the first discoveries of northern landscapes and stories, to the eugenicist elevation of the Nordic phenotype (which in turn influenced America's limits on immigration), to the idealization of Scandinavian social democracy as a post-racial utopia. Brunner traces how crackpot Nazi philosophies that tied the Aryan race to the upper latitudes have influenced modern pseudoscientific fantasies of racial and cultural superiority the world over.
Product Details
Price
$41.99
$39.05
Publisher
Tantor Audio
Publish Date
February 15, 2022
Dimensions
0.0 X 0.0 X 0.0 inches | 0.0 pounds
Language
English
Type
MP3 CD
EAN/UPC
9798212082594
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Bernd Brunner is a historian, lecturer, and author of many acclaimed books. He splits his time between Istanbul and Berlin.
Jonathan Yen is an experienced narrator who was inspired by the Golden Age of Radio, and while the gold was gone by the time he got there, he's carried that inspiration through to commercial work, voice acting, and stage productions. From vintage Howard Fast science fiction to naturalist Paul Rosolie's true adventures in the Amazon, he loves to tell a good story.
Jefferson Chase has translated works by Thomas Mann and Wolfgang Schivelbusch, among others. He lives in Berlin.