The LASHIPA project was a project carried out under the International Polar Year 2007–09 dealing with large-scale historical exploitation of polar areas. The present volume LASHIPA. History of large scale resource exploitation in polar areas constitutes in essence the proceedings of the project's final workshop in St Petersburg, Russia, in November 2009. 13 rather short contributions therefore deal with numerous topics related to polar resource exploitation, although the word ‘polar areas’ is slightly misleading in this context and should be replaced by ‘Arctic’ and more specifically by ‘Spitsbergen’. This is due to the fact that most research presented in the book deals with the history of exploitation in the Norwegian archipelago.

Kraikovski and others’ chapter deals with the logistics surrounding Russian hunting expeditions to Spitsbergen and notes that already by 1709 ships set sail to the Arctic to conduct commercial hunting. Although only around 1% of the shipping in the White Sea area actually sailed to Spitsbergen, this was particularly necessary for three distinguishable towns and regions, namely Mezen’, Onega and Archangelsk. It is followed by a chapter written by Kraikovski alone which looks at the economics of the Spitsbergen hunts vis-à-vis Murman fishing. Although expeditions could last up to 15 months, revenues for the hunters were not necessarily higher than for the ordinary fishermen. Only skippers earned significantly more than fishermen. These two articles a fill very important gap of an important economic activity in the 18^th century, but which, at least in a Russian context, is little explored. It therefore aligns with important works such as Shannon Ryan's The ice hunters (Ryan Reference Ryan1994) on the history, economics and logistics of the Newfoundland seal hunt or Mirovitskaya and others’ important contribution to understanding the North Pacific fur seals regime (Mirovitskaya and others Reference Mirovitskaya, Clark and Purver1993). Especially Kraikovski's mentioning of a ‘marine charter – a collection of unwritten rules and customs of Pomor walrus hunters recorded in the late 18^th century’ (page 20) stimulates further investigation and could be of interest for anthropologists and lawyers alike.

Aalders chapter on the perception of polar resources gives very valuable insight into the living conditions in 18^th century Russian and Dutch hunting stations in Spitsbergen. Interestingly, Russian hunters pursued different habits in adapting to Spitsbergen's environment by hunting endemic animal species, enabling them to stay throughout the winter. Dutch whalers on the other hand only stayed during the summer and brought along their own meats. Aalders’ brief reference to the background of the wastefulness of Russian and Dutch hunts, however, does not seem very convincing. She writes: ‘They [the hunters] did not take any care to avoid over-exploitation of the resources and exploited these in a wasteful way. This probably had to do with Spitsbergen being a No-Man's Land where anyone could go to exploit its resources’ (page 46). While this may be certainly the case she fails to mention that an ecosystem- or population-based ethic did not exist in the 18^th century and that the wealth of the oceans in general appeared inexhaustible. In Aalder's and Kraikovski's chapters a small consistency issue surfaces: the authors seem not to interpret historical documentation on the hunt in Spitsbergen evenly. Kraikovski for example challenges an early 19^th century account on the size of the hunt as carried out in late 18^th century (page 18) while Aalders appears not to question its validity but rather refers to large-scale catches to ‘seem almost incredible’ (page 42).

Haas looks at the Dutch Spitsbergen expedition in 1920 to establish mining operations and the settlement of Rijpsburg and in how far the Norwegian government, although already the Svalbard treaty had been signed, feared for geopolitical implications of this Dutch endeavour. This chapter seems to be a snapshot of the overall geopolitical ambitions at that time and does not provide too much groundbreaking information. Contrarily, Kruse delves into the geopolitical position of Spitsbergen and its resources from a British perspective. She provides an interesting insight into the differences in opinion on the archipelago in the late 19^th century and throughout the First World War. Especially the prospect of oil as becoming a strategic resource played a role in Britain not expressing any claims to Spitsbergen. DePasqual deals with the technical side of mining on Spitsbergen and the technologies applied for transportation and storage of coal. This is certainly unique and although I personally have not come across a similar chapter in other books relating to Arctic resources, this is indeed fitting and broadens the horizon on the practical side of early resource extraction in a harsh Arctic environment. The proceedings-style of the book rises to the surface in Portsel's very short paper on the history and Soviet period of the mine in Barentsburg. The topic is certainly interesting, but the paper appears to be a draft and seems printed in an unedited form. From an editor's perspective, the inclusion of this chapter appears unnecessary.

Avango and Houltz contrast Swedish narratives on the heroism of polar exploration with the narratives by and about Swedish workers in the Swedish mine during the early 1920s. Based on literature reviews from that time they flesh out several narratives, but first and foremost that workers had to be made of ‘the right stuff’ (page 94) in order to endure the harsh Arctic living and working conditions. But also scientific enquiry as a means of heroism played an important role in self- and outside perception of the mine workers.

Hartnell in principle conducts a self-assessment of the LASHIPA project within the context of heritage protection in Svalbard. Making reference to the provisions on heritage protection in the 2001 Environmental Protection Act and to the World Heritage Convention he briefly outlines the practical difficulties but the important role of the LASHIPA project in using the available legal mechanisms to protect Svalbard's industrial past. An interesting parallel with regard to the practices and legal mechanisms pertaining to the protection of heritage could be drawn to the protection of sacred sites in the Arctic, an increasingly visible issue in Arctic research, best exemplified by the conference ‘Protecting the sacred: recognition of sacred sites of indigenous peoples for sustaining nature and culture in northern and Arctic regions’ held in Rovaniemi, Finland, in September 2009.

Gustafsson provides the reader with a very brief overview of the emergence of the modern whaling industry, commonly known to be based on the Norwegian Svend Foyn. But as Gustafsson shows, Foyn's invention of the explosive-based harpoon was by no means based on his creativity alone, but rather on several similar ideas that were considered failures and which Foyn used to bring the explosive harpoon to perfection. Therefore, Foyn's outstanding position within Norwegian discourse is as such not justifiable. Only the incorporation of ‘cultural, environmental, market, political, economic and social aspects in addition to technical ones’ (page 116) enables the reaching of a satisfactory analysis of similar processes. This is indeed an important point and can certainly be applied in many different contexts. While as such not a groundbreaking finding a re-analysis of polar and other ‘heroes’ using this methodology would certainly yield interesting results.

Hacquebord's certainly interesting chapter on geopolitical and associated resource considerations in the Arctic shows its major weakness in being out of date. While the book itself is from 2012 and only finds reviewing in Polar Record now, also at the time of publication some of the information was already outdated. For example, Hacquebord only refers to the Arctic Five Ilulissat, which is consistently spelled as ‘Ilulisat’, meeting in 2008 while for example another meeting of the Arctic Five took place in Chelsea, Canada, in 2010. With regard to recent or ongoing geopolitical developments I would therefore rather refer to the freely available volumes of the Arctic Yearbook at www.arcticyearbook.com. Yet, by contrasting past and present resource exploitation, Hacquebord notes that ‘in the past, companies had more possibilities to exercise power in remote places such as the Arctic’ while ‘[t]oday companies start prospecting and exploitation after the political issues have been settled’ (page 143). This is an interesting finding and warrants further investigation from a geo-economic perspective.

An enlightening insight into the significance of Arctic climate change in US military discourse is given by Doel. He convincingly shows how climate change in the Arctic and concern there over is not a recent development, but was already an issue in the early stages of the Cold War. While recent concerns deal with concerns over sustainability of socio-ecological systems, early concerns were more of a strategic nature as the Soviet Union's knowledge on the Arctic trumped that of the United States, ultimately resulting in a military advantage. A paper on the geostrategic considerations in the discourse on Arctic climate change during the Cold War also for the other Arctic countries, especially Russia, would be truly beneficial to understanding the history of Arctic and polar geopolitics.

Wråkberg wraps up this book by providing very basic information on the law of the sea and Arctic governance. He links knowledge creation with (potential) geopolitical elements. This brief chapter is indeed enlightening in its second half, but could have benefitted from further development of the ideas brought forth therein. However, given the scope of the book, full-fledged research articles vis-à-vis the proceedings-framework of this volume do not seem appropriate.

LASHIPA is in many respects an interesting volume that provides substantial information for the understanding of resource exploitation in Svalbard. From an editorial side it shows several shortcomings while also the papers vary in quality. This notwithstanding, this work is a valuable contribution to an interdisciplinary approach to Arctic history.