Sand, snow, and stardust how US military engineers conquered extreme environments
"A vivid tour of US military efforts to understand, survive, and command harsh environments worldwide-and beyond. Deserts, the Arctic, outer space-these extreme environments are often seen as inhospitable places at the edges of our maps. But from the 1940s through the 1960s, the United States defens...
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| Format: | Books Print Book |
| Language: | English |
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Chicago :
The University of Chicago Press,
2025.
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| 100 | 1 | |a Heefner, Gretchen |e author | |
| 245 | 1 | 0 | |a Sand, snow, and stardust : |b how US military engineers conquered extreme environments / |c Gretchen Heefner. |
| 264 | 1 | |a Chicago : |b The University of Chicago Press, |c 2025. | |
| 300 | |a xi, 393 pages |b illustrations |c 24 cm | ||
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| 386 | |a Women |2 lcdgt | ||
| 386 | |a University and college faculty members |2 lcdgt | ||
| 504 | |a Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-383) and index. | ||
| 505 | 0 | 0 | |t List of Figures and Maps - |t Cast of Characters - |t List of Abbreviations - |t Introduction: Into the Extremes - |t Part I: Sand - |t Prelude - |t 1. The Smallest of Details - |t 2. Mud, Rain, Frost, and Wind - |t 3. The Cactus Cult - |t 4. The Desert Room - |t 5. Extreme Wish Lists - |t 6. Engineering Deserts - |t 7. Analog Deserts - |t Part II: Snow - |t Prelude - |t 8. Top of the World - |t 9. Arctica - |t 10. Pituffik - |t 11. Fieldwork - |t 12. Limits - |t 13. Secrets of the Ice - |t Part III: Stardust - |t Prelude - |t 14. Deserts in Space - |t 15. Moondust - |t 16. Analog Earth - |t Conclusion: Everyday Extremes - |g Acknowledgments - |g Notes - |g Selected Bibliography |
| 520 | |a "A vivid tour of US military efforts to understand, survive, and command harsh environments worldwide-and beyond. Deserts, the Arctic, outer space-these extreme environments are often seen as inhospitable places at the edges of our maps. But from the 1940s through the 1960s, the United States defense establishment took a keen interest in these places, spurred by the diverse and unfamiliar regions they'd navigated during World War II, dispatching troops to the Aleutian Islands, North Africa, the South Pacific, and beyond. To preserve the country's status as a superpower after the war, to pave runways and build bridges, engineers had to understand and then conquer dunes, permafrost, and even the surface of the moon. Sand, Snow, and Stardust explores how the US military generated a new understanding of these environments and attempted to master them, intending to cement America's planetary power. Operating in these regions depended as much on scientific and cultural knowledge as on military expertise and technology. From General George S. Patton learning the hard way that the desert is not always hot, to the challenges of constructing a scientific research base under the Arctic ice, to the sheer implausibility of modeling Martian environments on Earth, Gretchen Heefner takes us on a wry expedition into the extremes and introduces us to the people who've shaped our insight into these extraordinary environments. Even decades after the first manned space flight, plans for human space exploration and extraplanetary colonization are still based on what we know about stark habitats on Earth. An entertaining survey of the relationship between environmental history and military might, Sand, Snow, and Stardust also serves as a warning about the further transformation of the planet-whether through desertification, melting ice caps, or attempts to escape it entirely"-- Provided by publisher. | ||
| 650 | 0 | |a Military engineering |z United States. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Extreme environments. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Military meteorology. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Military geophysics. | |
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