Main entry:

Chu, Pey-Yi, author.

Title & Author:

The Life of Permafrost : A History of Frozen Earth in Russian and Soviet Science / Pey-Yi Chu.

Publication:

Toronto ; Buffalo ; London : University of Toronto Press, [2020]
©2020

Description:

viii, 288 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-278) and index.
[Table of Contents] -- Introduction: Historicizing Permafrost -- Permafrost as a historical object -- Permafrost in Russian and Soviet history -- Politics, science, and the environment -- The life cycle of permafrost -- Choosing words carefully -- 1. Mapping -- The cold of eastern Siberia -- Birth of a scientific object -- From Boden-Eis to Eisboden -- Conclusion -- 2. Building -- Colonization and construction -- Building on frozen earth -- The soil science of roads -- The ambiguity of merzlota -- Conclusion -- 3. Defining -- Merzlota as aggregate structure -- Merzlota as process -- Personal and institutional politics -- Vechnaia merzlota in Bolshevik culture -- Conclusion -- 4. Adapting -- From commission to institute -- Rhetoric of transforming nature -- Adapting to frozen earth -- Survival of the system approach -- Conclusion -- 5. Translating -- Birth of permafrost -- Criticism and self-criticism -- From merzlotovedenie to geocryology -- The dialectic persists -- Conclusion -- Epilogue: Resurrecting -- Acknowledgments -- Glossary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.
Issued also in electronic formats.

Summary:

"In 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."-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9781487501938 (hardcover)
1487501935 (hardcover)

Subject:

Frozen ground Research Russia History.
Frozen ground Research Soviet Union History.
Permafrost Research Russia History.
Permafrost Research Soviet Union History.
Frozen ground Research History.
Permafrost Research History.
Sols gelés Recherche Russie Histoire.
Sols gelés Recherche URSS Histoire.
Pergélisols Recherche Russie Histoire.
Pergélisols Recherche URSS Histoire.
Sols gelés Recherche Histoire.
Pergélisols Recherche Histoire.
Frozen ground Research
Russia
Soviet Union

Form/genre:

History

Holdings:

Location: Library main
Copy: 1
Status: On Order