The Life of Permafrost

A History of Frozen Earth in Russian and Soviet Science

Pey-Yi Chu

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Hardback

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English

University of Toronto Press
04 January 2021

History: specific events & topics; History of science; Grasslands, heaths, prairies, tundra

In the Anthropocene, the thawing of frozen earth due to global warming has drawn worldwide attention to permafrost. Contemporary scientists define permafrost as ground that maintains a negative temperature for at least two years. But where did this particular conception of permafrost originate, and what alternatives existed?

The Life of Permafrost provides an intellectual history of permafrost, placing the phenomenon squarely in the political, social, and material context of Russian and Soviet science. Pey-Yi Chu shows that understandings of frozen earth were shaped by two key experiences in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. On one hand, the colonization and industrialization of Siberia nourished an engineering perspective on frozen earth that viewed the phenomenon as an aggregate physical structure: ground. On the other, a Russian and Soviet tradition of systems thinking encouraged approaching frozen earth as a process, condition, and space tied to planetary exchanges of energy and matter. Aided by the US militarization of the Arctic during the Cold War, the engineering view of frozen earth as an obstacle to construction became dominant. The Life of Permafrost tells the fascinating story of how permafrost came to acquire life as Russian and Soviet scientists studied, named, and defined it.

By: Pey-Yi Chu
Imprint: University of Toronto Press
Country of Publication: Canada
Dimensions: Height: 231mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 560g
ISBN: 9781487501938
ISBN 10: 1487501935
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 04 January 2021
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgments Introduction: Historicizing Permafrost 1. Mapping The Cold of Eastern Siberia Birth of a Scientific Object From Boden-Eis to Eisboden 2. Building Colonization and Construction Building on Frozen Earth The Soil Science of Roads The Ambiguity of Merzlota 3. Defining Merzlota as Aggregate Structure Merzlota as Process Personal and Institutional Politics Vechnaia Merzlota in Bolshevik Culture 4. Adapting From Commission to Institute Rhetoric of Transforming Nature Adapting to Frozen Earth Survival of the Systems Approach 5. Translating Birth of Permafrost Criticism and Self-criticism From Merzlotovedenie to Geocryology The Dialectic Persists Epilogue: Resurrecting Glossary Bibliography

Pey-Yi Chu is an associate professor of history at Pomona College.

Reviews for The Life of Permafrost: A History of Frozen Earth in Russian and Soviet Science

This excellent book makes permafrost a lot more exciting than one might imagine it possibly could be, literally bringing the topic to life. Pey-Yi Chu gives the inanimate permafrost agency in these pages. -- Robert Orttung * Eurasian Geography and Economics, Vol. 62 * The life of 'permafrost' has generated the material for a fine, well-researched, clearly-argued, and deeply-thoughtful book. -- David Moon, University of York * <em>Slavonic and East European Review</em> *

Winner of 2022 Outstanding Acedemic Title awarded by Choice 2022 (United States)
Winner of The W. Bruce Lincoln Book Prize awarded by Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian St 2021 (United States)
Winner of The W. Bruce Lincoln Book Prize awarded by Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 2021 (United States)