To the Farthest Ends of the Earth: 150 Years of World Exploration by the Royal Geographical Society

"To the Farthest Ends of the Earth, by Ian Cameron celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Royal Geographical Society with a telling of its history. It's a lot of information to cover, and Cameron chooses to focus on the larger ventures that the society sponsored or supported, including the search for the Northwest Passage, the crossing of Australia, the search for the source of the Nile, Polar Exploration, the Mount Everest expeditions, and some modern expeditions. He shows that the society got much of its spirit and focus from the influence of some of its long-serving directors and secretaries, such as John Barrow, Arthur Hinks, or John Murchison. The tales of the expeditions are told in broad outline, but Cameron is specific in the roles played by the society in each, such as material support, training, awarding a medal after the fact, or publishing expedition maps or accounts. I felt like the founding of the society got short shrift in this book, with Cameron discussing the society growing out of the Ramblers Club and speaking of the founding members, but not really getting into the driving forces of the decline of the Admiralty during peacetime and the change of government that dried up much of the public funding for such adventures. The other non-Everest sections were good outlines, and make for good teasers if you're looking for something exciting to read about, but you're not sure what. The expeditions to search for the Northwest Passage were generally quite painful yet heroic sounding, and many of the trips to the interior of Australia sounded harrowing. I also enjoyed reading about what the Royal Geographical Society was up to in the recent past in the section that brings the reader up to date (the book was published in 1980)....." (posted by Grant) http://everestbookreport.blogspot.com/2011/06/to-farthest-ends-of-earth-by-ian.html