How Optimism Can Be The Difference Between Life And Death

A review of “South: The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition 1914–1917”

• First published: January 1st, 1919.
• Page Count: 374 pages.
• Where to get it: Here
• Setting: Antarctica.
• Characters: Ernest Shackleton and his crew of 27 men and 68 dogs.
• Genre: True Story, Nonfiction, Adventure, Memoir, and Survival.
• Style: First Person. The book is authentic, mixing historical context, navigation terminology, and diary entries. The writing can be stiff, lacking dramatism to a story with all the ingredients to be so, but just like that, it stays true to the facts.
• Summary: Sir Ernest Shackleton, captain of the Imperial Transantarctic Expedition (1914–1917), recounts the Endurance’s journey and misadventures.

His narration maneuvers through the need to raise funds and the internal dichotomy of leading a mission to cross the Antarctic continent while the Globe is imploding with the First World War; to his decision-making process as a leader of an…