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The Last Great Quest: Captain Scott's Antarctic Sacrifice
Many have told the story of Sir Robert Scott's dramatic and, ultimately, tragic race to the South Pole. But in The Last Great Quest , Max Jones adds a new dimension to the story by probing the nature of heroism in modern Britain as reflected in the strengths and weaknesses of Scott himself. In
particular, he charts the cultural reverberations of Scott's death and sacrifice on the eve of the greatest slaughter in British history--the First World War.
A dramatic opening leads to a compelling examination of the British traditions of exploration, the scientific ambitions of the expedition, the "race to the South Pole," and the disaster itself. Jones argues that Scott's death was a pivotal moment in British history, and central to this is his
extraordinary journal--the ultimate expression of self-control and heroism in the face of death--which was immensely popular in the years before the war. This important and challenging interpretation of Scott's life and death re-evaluates the man and his sacrifice. Indeed, Jones shows that the story
of Scott of the Antarctic is a key to understanding modern British history, connecting Scott with Dr. Livingstone, the Titanic disaster, and the ascent of Everest. In particular, Scott's story helps us to fathom the generation who fought and died in the Great War.
The most important new contribution to our knowledge of this compelling story in nearly 25 years, and the first account that sets the story in a wider historical context, The Last Great Quest brims with original conclusions that are based on previously unavailable evidence.
particular, he charts the cultural reverberations of Scott's death and sacrifice on the eve of the greatest slaughter in British history--the First World War.
A dramatic opening leads to a compelling examination of the British traditions of exploration, the scientific ambitions of the expedition, the "race to the South Pole," and the disaster itself. Jones argues that Scott's death was a pivotal moment in British history, and central to this is his
extraordinary journal--the ultimate expression of self-control and heroism in the face of death--which was immensely popular in the years before the war. This important and challenging interpretation of Scott's life and death re-evaluates the man and his sacrifice. Indeed, Jones shows that the story
of Scott of the Antarctic is a key to understanding modern British history, connecting Scott with Dr. Livingstone, the Titanic disaster, and the ascent of Everest. In particular, Scott's story helps us to fathom the generation who fought and died in the Great War.
The most important new contribution to our knowledge of this compelling story in nearly 25 years, and the first account that sets the story in a wider historical context, The Last Great Quest brims with original conclusions that are based on previously unavailable evidence.
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First published October 9, 2003
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June 16, 2025
"Why did the death of five men in the Antarctic cause such a sensation ninety years ago, not only in Britain but around the world?"
In seeking to answer this question, Max Jones has written an excellent and fascinating book that is less a biography of Scott and more an exploration of the culture that produced him, as well as an analysis of how that same culture viewed and responded to his death. As Jones explains, "While we now know a great deal about Antarctic weather systems, dietary requirements, and the personal animosities which enlivened all expeditions, our understanding of the culture and society which created these explorers and lauded their achievements is strewn with misunderstandings. The legendary figures who first ventured into the unknown remain impenetrable, unless we first apprehend the world which made them." Key insights and areas of consideration are late Victorian culture with its focus on character, Britain's view of itself as an imperial nation, and contemporary ideas of heroism and the importance of selfless sacrifice.
In exploring Scott's time and the immediate response to his death, Jones also challenges several stubborn stereotypes about Scott's story. These include that the scientific aims of his expeditions were a facade to conceal his primary concern, national glory; the idea that Scott chose not to take more dogs because he thought manhauling was more noble; that Amundsen's achievement went largely unacknowledged in Britain; that the celebration of Scott's death was primarily motivated by hurt national pride; that the British were unique in their glorification of suffering and failure; and ultimately that Scott's heroic reputation grew out of an establishment conspiracy that sought to suppress inconvenient details of his planning and handling of the expedition. All these ideas are unpacked and debunked quite convincingly.
Jones situates Scott's story within Victorian and Edwardian culture and the history of British exploration. As opportunities for pioneering journeys steadily declined in the late 19th Century, the RGS increasingly promoted a vision of exploration as a "tripartite process of measurement: explorers measured the world, taking scientific observations; measured manliness, testing their heroic character in the battle against nature; and measured empire, marking the limits of British imperial power." This is a vitally important insight, and one that Jones revisits and expands on through the rest of the book. It also aligns closely with some curious nineteenth and early twentieth-century preoccupations.
Regarding measuring men, a vital consideration is the Victorian culture of exploration and ideas of character: "How can we explain the Victorian fascination with exploration? Technological advances, commercial possibilities, religious fervour, strategic considerations, scientific curiosity, patriotic sentiment, and personal ambition all drove explorers into the unknown...Expeditions engaged with a range of mid-Victorian preoccupations: evangelical Christianity, the civilising effects of commerce, the progress of European science, and Britain's imperial destiny. Explorers proved such compelling popular figures because different communities could express these beliefs by imagining the explorer in different ways." Jones also notes that explorers exemplified the idea of character, which was such a prominent component of Victorian intellectual life. The idea of 'character' was rooted in four core qualities: self-restraint, perseverance, strenuous effort and courage in the face of adversity. Thus, the material failure of an expedition could be redeemed by the demonstration of a moral victory, becoming a triumph of manly character in the face of adversity. It's quite obvious how the nature and timing of Scott's two Antarctic expeditions resonated with these concerns. This was only amplified by the fact that Scott was able to express himself so eloquently in writing, and the cornerstone of Scott's heroic reputation is undoubtedly his sledging journal. Jones sees it as a remarkable expression of self control in the face of death, displaying exactly the kind of character that resonated so strongly with the contemporary culture: "The frenzied response to Scott's 'Message to the Public' exposes an age preoccupied with the endurance of hardship as a test of character, a preoccupation exposed a year earlier after the sinking of the Titanic, and a year later at the outbreak of war."
More briefly, regarding measuring the world, it is important to acknowledge the growing importance of science in exploration. The end of the pioneering era of Franklin and Livingstone led the RGS to implement a comprehensive programme to train explorers as part of a scientific revolution: "The expanding British empire demanded accurate geographical information, opening a distinctive space for geographical science within the growing education system." Regarding measuring empire, Jones sees the National Antarctic Expedition not so much as "an imperialist enterprise but, rather, as the expression of an imperial nation. The Discovery marked out the boundaries of empire, sailing down an imperial corridor via South Africa and New Zealand to reach the Antarctic, while the raising of the flag at the southernmost point yet reached on earth offered a compelling emblem of the extent of British power."
Jones goes on to analyse the response to Scott's death, and has conducted an extensive survey of contemporary writing on the subject. This goes a long way towards dispelling some of the negative myths that have grown up around him and his legacy. One is the suggestion that the British revelled in the moral superiority of manhauling, which is usually based on quotations from Clements Markham and one passage from Scott's Voyage of the Discovery. However, the absence of praise for manhauling from British tributes in 1913 indicates that this idea is hugely misleading. He also shows convincingly that the causes of the Antarctic disaster were widely debated at the time, and that the superiority of Amundsen's methods was acknowledged by many. Finally, he demonstrates that the allegation of an establishment conspiracy to cover up Scott's failings by editing his journals, thus projecting the myth of the perfect martyred hero, simply cannot be sustained. Scott's journals were indeed edited before publication, but this was much less extensive than has been alleged, and many negative or potentially damaging passages were left intact.
Perhaps the most valuable contribution of this book is how Jones places Scott's death and the response to it in the context of Edwardian British culture. Undoubtedly, "Captain Scott and his companions offered a reassuring example of heroic character and idealism, to counter anxieties about national decline and the materialism of the modern world...the explorers willingness to suffer in a noble cause and the bravery with which they faced death were widely celebrated as affirmations of national virility in an age haunted by the spectre of decline." Furthermore, "Many have argued that the nation was transformed in the second half of the nineteenth century by the inexorable rise of an imperialist ideology: Military, Monarchy and Empire superseded Protestantism, Parliament and Liberty as the dominant features of a new popular culture. The mass media fuelled this transformation, bombarding vast audiences with royal spectacles and imperial adventure stories. The ways in which a Royal Naval officer, Royal Indian Marine, seaman, cavalry officer, and civilian were hailed as heroes, expose the very heart of the nation on the eve of the First world War, offering insights into the status of the armed forces, the role of monarchy, and the relationship between England, Scotland and Wales. The celebration of Antarctic heroism reveals a more finely textured national tapestry than the imperial monolith of many recent accounts." These are fascinating insights and show how both the Antarctic disaster and Scott himself had a cultural significance that extends far beyond the bare historical events. The changes in attitude to Scott that have been seen in the 100 years since his death, therefore, also need to be seen as reflections of cultural norms and preferences, rather than a development in historical insight whereby we now understand the events more accurately than was previously the case.
Another interesting feature of the public response to his death is the emergence of Scott as the pre-eminent hero of the disaster, which tended to obscure the impulsive, brooding and fatalistic character who has subsequently emerged. The almost universal celebration of Scott's heroism is because his story came to reflect what has been called the "muffling inclusiveness" of the English past, as his story wasn't harnessed to any specific or sectional definition of the nation; these divisions didn't exist in the same way as they did in France or Germany. Jones unpacks this aspect of British history, as he explains that political, commercial and military success insulated England from the liberationalist nationalism which engulfed Europe and meant that religious and political divisions weren't as marked in England as they were on the continent. The monarchy also provided a central cultural focal point that was nonetheless detached from formal politics or any explicit nationalist agenda. These distinctive contours of national identity in Britain before the First World War, along with the cultural veneration of suffering and admiration of self-control and selflessness, meant that the Antarctic disaster, and Scott in particular, resonated with the public imagination in a particularly powerful way. Even the "infamous triumvirate of Edwardian troublemakers: Irish nationalists, radical socialists and militant suffragettes" didn't dissent from the dominant assessment of Scott as essentially heroic. His story also supports the contention that the idea of character "shifted in the second half of the nineteenth century, from a mid-Victorian concern with inward spirituality, to a coarser Edwardian preoccupation with physical hardship...in an age of anxiety, of geopolitical tension and social conflict, the idea of sacrifice, always a facet of the language of character, assumed particular prominence." While many criticised Scott, all paid tribute to his heroism in the face of death. The shift to questioning his heroism was largely triggered by Roland Huntford's popular 1979 biography, as he "saw only deceit in Scott's last message, the shameful self-justification of a man who had led his comrades to disaster." Interestingly, this is as much a reflection of contemporary culture as the earlier veneration, as "Huntford's most lasting legacy was to erect Scott as a hero for a nation in decline, an emblem of the amateurism and incompetence which, he argued, had encumbered Britain through the twentieth century." Jones contends that this reveals more about current concerns than about the past, and again, that the argument that the British developed a unique cult of the loser cannot be sustained.
In conclusion, Jones states that the extraordinary response to the death of Captain Scott in February 1913 was generated by the "conjunction of an exceptional set of circumstances: the unique place of the South Pole in the public imagination; the particular stage of development of transport and communications, where cables carried news of the disaster around the world in a matter of hours, but an assault on the Pole relied on animals and men; and Scott's skill at articulating the heroic fantasies of his generation...Scott's genius was to present the assault on the Pole as a heroic sacrifice for an age which venerated struggle." Jones draws a fascinating parallel when he says that, "The peculiar combination of heroic endeavour, scientific research, and national glory expressed by Scott's Antarctic expeditions, has been energised only once since the conquest of the South Pole: in the race to the moon."
This is a well-constructed, thoughtful and insightful book, and a worthy addition to the countless volumes written about Antarctic exploration. Anyone who has an interest in the subject will find this a stimulating read, and it has certainly added to my understanding of the wider context in which Scott and his companions lived and died.
"The tragic story of the men who lost the race to the South Pole will endure. For this featureless spot on the surface of the earth, where scientific curiosity and romantic imagination collide, retains its allure. And in our jaded, disorienting times, some will always seek enchantment in the south with Captain Scott, turning the pages of the last great quest."
In seeking to answer this question, Max Jones has written an excellent and fascinating book that is less a biography of Scott and more an exploration of the culture that produced him, as well as an analysis of how that same culture viewed and responded to his death. As Jones explains, "While we now know a great deal about Antarctic weather systems, dietary requirements, and the personal animosities which enlivened all expeditions, our understanding of the culture and society which created these explorers and lauded their achievements is strewn with misunderstandings. The legendary figures who first ventured into the unknown remain impenetrable, unless we first apprehend the world which made them." Key insights and areas of consideration are late Victorian culture with its focus on character, Britain's view of itself as an imperial nation, and contemporary ideas of heroism and the importance of selfless sacrifice.
In exploring Scott's time and the immediate response to his death, Jones also challenges several stubborn stereotypes about Scott's story. These include that the scientific aims of his expeditions were a facade to conceal his primary concern, national glory; the idea that Scott chose not to take more dogs because he thought manhauling was more noble; that Amundsen's achievement went largely unacknowledged in Britain; that the celebration of Scott's death was primarily motivated by hurt national pride; that the British were unique in their glorification of suffering and failure; and ultimately that Scott's heroic reputation grew out of an establishment conspiracy that sought to suppress inconvenient details of his planning and handling of the expedition. All these ideas are unpacked and debunked quite convincingly.
Jones situates Scott's story within Victorian and Edwardian culture and the history of British exploration. As opportunities for pioneering journeys steadily declined in the late 19th Century, the RGS increasingly promoted a vision of exploration as a "tripartite process of measurement: explorers measured the world, taking scientific observations; measured manliness, testing their heroic character in the battle against nature; and measured empire, marking the limits of British imperial power." This is a vitally important insight, and one that Jones revisits and expands on through the rest of the book. It also aligns closely with some curious nineteenth and early twentieth-century preoccupations.
Regarding measuring men, a vital consideration is the Victorian culture of exploration and ideas of character: "How can we explain the Victorian fascination with exploration? Technological advances, commercial possibilities, religious fervour, strategic considerations, scientific curiosity, patriotic sentiment, and personal ambition all drove explorers into the unknown...Expeditions engaged with a range of mid-Victorian preoccupations: evangelical Christianity, the civilising effects of commerce, the progress of European science, and Britain's imperial destiny. Explorers proved such compelling popular figures because different communities could express these beliefs by imagining the explorer in different ways." Jones also notes that explorers exemplified the idea of character, which was such a prominent component of Victorian intellectual life. The idea of 'character' was rooted in four core qualities: self-restraint, perseverance, strenuous effort and courage in the face of adversity. Thus, the material failure of an expedition could be redeemed by the demonstration of a moral victory, becoming a triumph of manly character in the face of adversity. It's quite obvious how the nature and timing of Scott's two Antarctic expeditions resonated with these concerns. This was only amplified by the fact that Scott was able to express himself so eloquently in writing, and the cornerstone of Scott's heroic reputation is undoubtedly his sledging journal. Jones sees it as a remarkable expression of self control in the face of death, displaying exactly the kind of character that resonated so strongly with the contemporary culture: "The frenzied response to Scott's 'Message to the Public' exposes an age preoccupied with the endurance of hardship as a test of character, a preoccupation exposed a year earlier after the sinking of the Titanic, and a year later at the outbreak of war."
More briefly, regarding measuring the world, it is important to acknowledge the growing importance of science in exploration. The end of the pioneering era of Franklin and Livingstone led the RGS to implement a comprehensive programme to train explorers as part of a scientific revolution: "The expanding British empire demanded accurate geographical information, opening a distinctive space for geographical science within the growing education system." Regarding measuring empire, Jones sees the National Antarctic Expedition not so much as "an imperialist enterprise but, rather, as the expression of an imperial nation. The Discovery marked out the boundaries of empire, sailing down an imperial corridor via South Africa and New Zealand to reach the Antarctic, while the raising of the flag at the southernmost point yet reached on earth offered a compelling emblem of the extent of British power."
Jones goes on to analyse the response to Scott's death, and has conducted an extensive survey of contemporary writing on the subject. This goes a long way towards dispelling some of the negative myths that have grown up around him and his legacy. One is the suggestion that the British revelled in the moral superiority of manhauling, which is usually based on quotations from Clements Markham and one passage from Scott's Voyage of the Discovery. However, the absence of praise for manhauling from British tributes in 1913 indicates that this idea is hugely misleading. He also shows convincingly that the causes of the Antarctic disaster were widely debated at the time, and that the superiority of Amundsen's methods was acknowledged by many. Finally, he demonstrates that the allegation of an establishment conspiracy to cover up Scott's failings by editing his journals, thus projecting the myth of the perfect martyred hero, simply cannot be sustained. Scott's journals were indeed edited before publication, but this was much less extensive than has been alleged, and many negative or potentially damaging passages were left intact.
Perhaps the most valuable contribution of this book is how Jones places Scott's death and the response to it in the context of Edwardian British culture. Undoubtedly, "Captain Scott and his companions offered a reassuring example of heroic character and idealism, to counter anxieties about national decline and the materialism of the modern world...the explorers willingness to suffer in a noble cause and the bravery with which they faced death were widely celebrated as affirmations of national virility in an age haunted by the spectre of decline." Furthermore, "Many have argued that the nation was transformed in the second half of the nineteenth century by the inexorable rise of an imperialist ideology: Military, Monarchy and Empire superseded Protestantism, Parliament and Liberty as the dominant features of a new popular culture. The mass media fuelled this transformation, bombarding vast audiences with royal spectacles and imperial adventure stories. The ways in which a Royal Naval officer, Royal Indian Marine, seaman, cavalry officer, and civilian were hailed as heroes, expose the very heart of the nation on the eve of the First world War, offering insights into the status of the armed forces, the role of monarchy, and the relationship between England, Scotland and Wales. The celebration of Antarctic heroism reveals a more finely textured national tapestry than the imperial monolith of many recent accounts." These are fascinating insights and show how both the Antarctic disaster and Scott himself had a cultural significance that extends far beyond the bare historical events. The changes in attitude to Scott that have been seen in the 100 years since his death, therefore, also need to be seen as reflections of cultural norms and preferences, rather than a development in historical insight whereby we now understand the events more accurately than was previously the case.
Another interesting feature of the public response to his death is the emergence of Scott as the pre-eminent hero of the disaster, which tended to obscure the impulsive, brooding and fatalistic character who has subsequently emerged. The almost universal celebration of Scott's heroism is because his story came to reflect what has been called the "muffling inclusiveness" of the English past, as his story wasn't harnessed to any specific or sectional definition of the nation; these divisions didn't exist in the same way as they did in France or Germany. Jones unpacks this aspect of British history, as he explains that political, commercial and military success insulated England from the liberationalist nationalism which engulfed Europe and meant that religious and political divisions weren't as marked in England as they were on the continent. The monarchy also provided a central cultural focal point that was nonetheless detached from formal politics or any explicit nationalist agenda. These distinctive contours of national identity in Britain before the First World War, along with the cultural veneration of suffering and admiration of self-control and selflessness, meant that the Antarctic disaster, and Scott in particular, resonated with the public imagination in a particularly powerful way. Even the "infamous triumvirate of Edwardian troublemakers: Irish nationalists, radical socialists and militant suffragettes" didn't dissent from the dominant assessment of Scott as essentially heroic. His story also supports the contention that the idea of character "shifted in the second half of the nineteenth century, from a mid-Victorian concern with inward spirituality, to a coarser Edwardian preoccupation with physical hardship...in an age of anxiety, of geopolitical tension and social conflict, the idea of sacrifice, always a facet of the language of character, assumed particular prominence." While many criticised Scott, all paid tribute to his heroism in the face of death. The shift to questioning his heroism was largely triggered by Roland Huntford's popular 1979 biography, as he "saw only deceit in Scott's last message, the shameful self-justification of a man who had led his comrades to disaster." Interestingly, this is as much a reflection of contemporary culture as the earlier veneration, as "Huntford's most lasting legacy was to erect Scott as a hero for a nation in decline, an emblem of the amateurism and incompetence which, he argued, had encumbered Britain through the twentieth century." Jones contends that this reveals more about current concerns than about the past, and again, that the argument that the British developed a unique cult of the loser cannot be sustained.
In conclusion, Jones states that the extraordinary response to the death of Captain Scott in February 1913 was generated by the "conjunction of an exceptional set of circumstances: the unique place of the South Pole in the public imagination; the particular stage of development of transport and communications, where cables carried news of the disaster around the world in a matter of hours, but an assault on the Pole relied on animals and men; and Scott's skill at articulating the heroic fantasies of his generation...Scott's genius was to present the assault on the Pole as a heroic sacrifice for an age which venerated struggle." Jones draws a fascinating parallel when he says that, "The peculiar combination of heroic endeavour, scientific research, and national glory expressed by Scott's Antarctic expeditions, has been energised only once since the conquest of the South Pole: in the race to the moon."
This is a well-constructed, thoughtful and insightful book, and a worthy addition to the countless volumes written about Antarctic exploration. Anyone who has an interest in the subject will find this a stimulating read, and it has certainly added to my understanding of the wider context in which Scott and his companions lived and died.
"The tragic story of the men who lost the race to the South Pole will endure. For this featureless spot on the surface of the earth, where scientific curiosity and romantic imagination collide, retains its allure. And in our jaded, disorienting times, some will always seek enchantment in the south with Captain Scott, turning the pages of the last great quest."
January 16, 2025
I think I did not carefully read what this book was about. It wasn’t very much about the Scott expedition itself, but more about what ensued afterwards in British science, politics, culture, etc…Some of it was interesting, but also some quite dull (I.e. all sorts of info on Royal Geographic Society and the memorials/art related to the expedition…lots of detail…not v. exciting)
May 19, 2024
This book found its way onto my reading list because it was mentioned in The White Darkness by David Grann(another excellent book well, worth reading). Jones' book describes the reaction to Scott's death and explains the environment that fed the frenzy of monuments and memorials. Scott was held in higher esteem for his failure and death than Roald Amundsen was for being first to the pole and surviving. Scott's men pulled their own sledges and Amundsen's men used dogs. Prior to reading this book, I would be able to tell you what Scott and Shackleton had done, but the name Amundsen meant nothing to me. I need to find a book about his adventures.
July 13, 2025
I wanted to read about Scott's expedition -- Scott, his crew, their experiences & their challenges -- but the main focus of the book was really on how the expedition fit into the surrounding context &/or reflected British culture & history. So I mostly just read the "action" part & skimmed (or skipped) the "intellectual" sections. It's probably a thoughtful, interesting book for more intellectual readers but I was hoping for an easy summer read. This wasn't it.
July 19, 2023
Es la historia de la conquista de la Antártida. La lucha entre Scott, el inglés y Amundsen, el noruego.
El escritor, Max Jones, se pone del lado del inglés, dando a conocer los detalles de la expedición y el valor de ese equipo.
El escritor, Max Jones, se pone del lado del inglés, dando a conocer los detalles de la expedición y el valor de ese equipo.
January 30, 2024
Read during a cruise to Antarctica, this book painted a different view of Scott’s demise in the social, political & economic contexts of Edwardian Britain. I enjoyed the early chapters but got bogged down. Too long & repetitive for me.
August 1, 2025
very very very very very good. what do you mean scott was a mason and in london in 1888
April 16, 2016
Very interesting. I was expecting more about the actual expedition, but it mostly focussed on the history of how it came about and the aftermath. A lot of things I didn't know about the effect Scott's death had on the public and the scientific aims of the expedition.
December 24, 2014
An interesting and well researched book. Very enjoyable, and I learnt a lot.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews