The Ice Finders: How a Poet, a Professor, and a Politician Discovered the Ice Age

by Edmund Blair Bolles

In the middle of the nineteenth century three diverse men discovered and named the Ice Ages. The heroes of the tale are an explorer-poet, Elisha Kent Kane (1820-1857), who spent two years trapped on Greenland's north coast, the renowned Swiss professor-author-lecturer, Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), and the Scottish geologist (and master politician) Charles Lyell (1797-1875). With their investigations, these adventurers changed our understanding of natural history and transformed Geology into the foundational science that supports biology, paleontology, oceanography, and, of course, glaciology.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Geology, Science Nature, Biography, Nature

272 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 1999

Reviews

[Sasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was ok, but not brilliant, frankly. Bolles tells a compelling story, but I was bothered by some of his more flowery moments, which were not handled well. Frankly, I’m still puzzled as to why Elisha Kent Kane really needed to be a focus of this story at all, unless Bolles thought he couldn’t tell an exciting story without the drama of an arctic mission.

[Rosemary Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent look back at how the ice age was finally acknowledged and accepted. The author's framing of the long, winding road - the detours, the bright minds, the determination and the stubbornness of all who contributed to arriving at some real knowledge - well, it was so much more interesting that I'd imagined it would be. Thoroughly engrossing.
Two thumbs up!

[Kelly Lachmund · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at how the concept of the ice age came to be. It baffles the mind as to how narrow minded people were when it came to ideas that nowadays makes complete sense. Just shows how new ideas can be so hard to accept.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

In reading the notes and bibliography, it was clear the author went to great lengths to write the story of discovering the ice age using the earliest sources. He was thorough and detailed in writing about the discoveries of the three main characters. We take for granted today that there was an ice age, and that the world was not just 6,000 years old. It was a good reminder of how dedicated people were in learning how the world worked at the time. The book was unique and definitely worth the read. I just found the two maps hopelessly inadequate. I would have really appreciated more illustrations that were simple and gave a visual clue as to where the story was taking place. I guess this would have been a great read on an e-reader, allowing you to instantly find maps or other supportive material not in the book and understand where the author is taking you.

[Ellen Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This little book was, I have to say, boring and confusing, full of names and places hard to follow with not enough maps. But i kept on reading it to the end. I like how the author was trying to understand how otherwise rational people can refuse to believe a theory that is based in verifiable fact, but I don't know if he really answered (or could have) that. of course, religion was part of it, but timidity, resistance to change, hedging our bets, refusal to admit we are wrong, etc. were all explored too. It was also sort of a fantasy of a golden age of academia, where intellectuals travelled where their passions took them to hear and see things for themselves and where they got together regularly to bandy about ideas. They didn't seem to lack for funds to do this and they didn't seem to spend most of their time grading freshman essays. great life!

[Thor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books I like and don't like at the same time. The content is right on target for me, narrative nonfiction about ice-age scientists. The writing skill at the sentence and paragraph level was thoroughly enjoyable. I fond the structure off-putting, with three narratives of Louis Agassiz, Charles Lyell, and Elisha Kane not in synch, and somewhat distorted. But I love the premise, that it takes more than a scientist to spread a good idea. In this case, it took a poet and a politician as well. Bravo for that. Unfortunately, it's all too true.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for my research methods course. It was assigned because this book tells the story of how scientists "discovered" the Ice Age. In order to discover the Ice Age, scientists had to put away a lot of what they believed were facts and look at the evidence. There are accounts of scientists who looked at the evidence and still dismissed the theory of an Ice Age. Thus, it's a great book to show how the same facts have been interpreted to support two sides of a theory.

The author was quite snarky though, so that took a lot from the story.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this book three stars due to its lack of coherent time line. The book skips from one time period to twenty years in the future or past from where it was in the previous section.

The concept of this biography has merit; it really wasn't that long ago when the ice ages were merely thought of as science fiction. Bolles expertly describes the sheer revulsion that, "The Experts", in the fields of geology and glacial studies had for Jean de Charpentier and his observations.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you ever wondered how the world began to believe that there had been a great Ice Age, then this is your book. Wonderful and well written true story of the men/scientists that recognized and convinced the world of science and the common man that there had been a great Ice Age of Glaciers. A book full of adventures and descriptions of what the men saw and how they convinced themselves and then others in the 1800's about the great catastrophe of ice.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be honest, I never finished this book. It’s a cool concept, but I couldn’t quite get into it. It’s an amazing story about the men who first “discovered” the last great ice age in Europe. It sounds funny to us now, but respected scientists used all sorts of different explanations for things we now see as evidence of glaciers and an ice age.

[Clair · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good summary of the nineteenth-century discoveries that led to our modern understanding of the Ice Age. I did not like that the footnotes are listed in the back by page number instead of numerically throughout the text. In addition, some quotes and statements are not documented properly by sources.

[Abigail (Abbe) · Rating 5 out of 5]

truly amazing and revolutionary. an exhilarating read for any nature scientist.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Glacial geology for the interested reader; at the time of Darwin. Very well written.

[David Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like other reviewers stated, reads like a novel sometimes. Overall a good history on the players of science, instead of the science itself (similar to Bryson's Short History in this regard).

[Hstrait · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent detail and narrative of the development of ideas we now take for granted.