Ice: Great Moments in the History of Hard, Cold Water

by Karal Ann Marling

"Anything but frigid, this book is filled with fun facts about one of Minnesota's greatest—though possibly under-appreciated—natural treasures."
Minnesota Monthly

"Put your mittens on; you'll freeze to death!" admonish the world's grandmothers as the temperature plummets. No doubt the Arctic explorers—today in their GORE-TEX, historically in their woolens—needed no such instruction. Icy climes bring with them the dangers of frostbite, but also the poetic beauty of glaciers and ice shelves, of ice palaces and aurora borealis. Karal Ann Marling explores these topics and more as she considers the history of "hard, cold water."

What better place to start than with dessert? The pleasure of ice cream on a hot day has been known since the sixteenth century, although it wasn't until a few hundred years later that reliable refrigeration made the treat readily available. Marling expands her icy explorations to the realm of fiction—the ice crossing in Uncle Tom's Cabin, the frozen wasteland of Frankenstein—and to the movies and Broadway. Cities vie for tourists by building shimmering ice palaces to celebrate winter; explorers compete to reach the poles, and not all live to tell the story. The study of ice by a true aficionado yields fascinating insights and may just inspire readers to embrace winter—or to make their way to the nearest ice cream shop.

Genres: History, Microhistory, Nonfiction, Science

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2008

About the author

Karal Ann Marling is professor of art history and American studies at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of numerous books on topics including American mural painting of the Depression era, illustration of the 1940s, the architecture of theme parks, and the influence of television on visual culture in the 1950s.

Reviews

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly a bunch of anecdotes and very little actual history. Just not really what I was expecting.

[J. Lee Hazlett · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 stars. I was expecting a lot more from this book than I got. While there were some interesting passages, the overall experience was disappointing. There were several chapters in the middle where it seemed like the editor had gone out to lunch; uneven narrative flow, bad (or absent) transitions, and even a couple of odd word choices. At other times the book went down a rabbit hole and ended up discussing something only tenuously related to ice for several paragraphs. This would have been fine if there had then been an effort to link the sidebars into the main topic, but this was rarely the case. I was reading 'Just the Tonic', a book about the history of tonic water, simultaneously with this book. I felt more interest for and learned more from the page-and-a-half inset that 'Tonic' presented about ice than I felt throughout the entirety of 'Ice'. This is sad, because you get the sense that the author of 'Ice' really tried hard to put together a fun read. For this reader, at least, that effort slipped and fell flat on its face.

[Klaus Kretzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is real fun to read. It contains less "facts" about ice compared to Mariana Gosnell's book but it has a really nice spirit of appreciation of the subject. It is less "complete", but more anecdotal wich makes it so pleasant to read. Definitely a must-read for ice lovers I would say.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very light and easy read, full of lost history and little known facts. I had no idea the Uncle Tom river crossing scene was so ingrained in the U.S. culture. Also had not considered how the use of the North Pole was meant to represent the places unknown to humanity(though it wasn't completely) There's a lot in here to highlight.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you read one book on the history of ice, make it this one! Or don't. You might think that there's not much to be said about ice -- especially after reading this book.

Actually, I decided to read this book because I thought it had the chance to be fascinating. I figured it would talk about the commercial history of ice, from the first methods of collecting naturally-created ice and either transporting it to warmer areas or storing it until warmer months, to more modern large-scale production methods. To be fair, this book did talk about that a little bit, but on the whole the impression it gives is of a collection of personal stories and pop-culture references to ice.

A big chunk of the book talks about movies that feature ice, such as Titanic. I suppose that ice can serve a metaphorical purpose, and the author talks about that somewhat, but the telling here never becomes compelling.

[Ann Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book about the wonders of ice! What an array of topics--icebergs, ice castles, exploring the polar ice, the invention of ice making, storing, delivering, great stories set in icy realms and with (of course) courageous escapes over the ice, portrayals of the Inuit people and icy cultures, and glorious ice cream. The book is written with humor and the joy only Northerners know--created by a childhood of ice forts, snowball fights, and being wrapped up in cold weather gear until you look like a tick about to pop.

My favorite passage describes an iceberg exploding "One end shot into the air, like the prow of a sinking liner, and it plummeted into the depths before the crew's disbelieving eyes, leaving behind shattered ice crystals and a flotilla of bergy bits". A flotilla of bergy bits? It does not get better than this!