Davison, Colleen M.

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CIRCUMPOLAR HEALTH ATLAS. Edited by T. KUE YOUNG, RAJIV RAWAT, WINFRIED DALLMANN, SUSAN CHATWOOD, and PETER BJERREGAARD. Toronto: Uni-versity of Toronto Press, 2012. ISBN 978-1-4426-4456-4. 190 p., maps, colour illus., bib., credits. Hardbound. Cdn$75.00.While on a recent research trip in Nunavut, northern Canada, I had the opportunity to review the Circumpo-lar Health Atlas by Dr. Kue Young and his colleagues at the University of Toronto, the Institute for Circumpo-lar Health Research (Yellowknife), the Norwegian Polar Institute (Tromsø), the National Institute of Public Health (Copenhagen), and the Government of Greenland. I cradled this beautifully bound, hardcover book as I traveled by northern airways to Baker Lake and Rankin Inlet, and I couldn’t have been more pleased with my traveling com-panion! This full-colour volume is a unique and welcomed resource for Arctic scholars and would be appealing for a general interested readership as well. The purpose of the Circumpolar Health Atlas is to give health researchers, service providers, and policy makers working in the North, and for the North, an overarching and multidisciplinary understanding of northern condi-tions so that health, which the authors conceptualize very broadly, is put in context. The Circumpolar Health Atlas uses “maps, charts, tables and images to visually explain the major health patterns and related issues for diverse pop-ulations who inhabit the circumpolar regions” (p. 2). The focus of the book is indeed visual description. It includes hundreds of stunning nature and historical photographs and maps, which themselves constitute an important col-lection. While the text of the Circumpolar Health Atlas is relatively brief and does not generally include reference citations, the authors indicate that these limitations can be rectified by seeking out the previously published Health Transitions in Arctic Populations (2008). This earlier vol-ume, edited by Kue Young and Peter Bjerregaard, is a more traditionally academic publication, and after examining it I concur that the more serious scholar could use the two volumes in tandem. Where the Circumpolar Health Atlas really shines is in its visual and general appeal and simplic-ity of design.The Circumpolar Health Atlas is written in five parts. Part one, called “The Circumpolar World,” provides a gen-eral overview of the lands, seas, climate, plants and animals of the circumpolar region. The authors have strived to main-tain a balance of information provided across the different geographic circumpolar regions and they have been largely successful. Overall, the book is dense with information but very approachable because of the heavy use of maps, fig-ures, photos, and other images. The taxonomic guide for the amateur Arctic naturalist, provided in this section, may be one of the only places where I feel the level of detail is too great, with the authors giving a comprehensive list of order, family, genus, species, subspecies, and common name for approximately 112 different Arctic mammals and birds. The second part of the book focuses on “Circumpolar Peoples.” This section provides visual and textual material about culture and language, origins, prehistory and history, politics, settlements, society, and economy. Included here are fascinating photographs and a comprehensive historical timeline for all regions from before the 10th century to the present day. A large amount of detail is presented, but in a way that makes it digestible in small amounts each time you might sit with the text. There may be a slight emphasis on the North American region in this section. The third part of the book is about “Health Status.” This section provides information about the general health of populations across the circumpolar world, as well as spe-cific information about children and youth. The section also includes foci on reproductive health, infectious diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity, inju-ries and violence, and mental health and suicide. The latter sections are especially important considering the dearth of quality information specifically relating to these important issues in the circumpolar North. The fourth part of the Circumpolar Health Atlas focuses on “Health Determinants.” Specifically the authors high-light living conditions, nutrition and physical activity, smoking, alcohol, and substance use. They also include sections on genetic susceptibility, environmental quality, and effects of the cold and dark on the health of circum-polar peoples. This latter group comprises important deter-minants and ones not always highlighted as general social determinants in the health literature. So much information is skillfully depicted in parts 3 and 4 of the text that even the most seasoned circumpolar health researcher or practi-tioner will learn new information about circumpolar health status and determinants of health.The final part of the book relates to “Health Systems.” This section reviews the different systems of health govern-ance, organization, financing, programs and services, edu-cation, and research across the circumpolar regions. One of the only overall critiques I have of the Circumpolar Health Atlas is that this section might be more effectively placed earlier in the text, since its information could be a help-ful precursor to understanding the health experiences and determinants of the different circumpolar peoples.As I traveled with this book in the Canadian North, I continued to reflect on its usefulness as a general resource on circumpolar health. While it does not have the scientific weight of Health Transitions in Arctic Populations, it is more approachable and a joy to read and digest. Between take-offs and landings, I happily read and reflected upon small sections of the text. The images were artfully cho-sen, and many have stayed with me. The book provides a very useful comparison across a great variety of factors of different parts of the circumpolar world. It is also a collec-tive work of art that I happily display on my coffee table at home. At $75.00 Canadian for a hardcover version, it is somewhat expensive; however, the quality of the printing and the true value the reader gets within are really worth the price. I would consider this book an exceptional gift. 230 • REVIEWSREVIEWS • 231The Circumpolar Health Atlas was a treat to review, and I would recommend it highly for the circumpolar enthusiast as well as any interested citizen. REFERENCEYoung, T.K., and Bjerregaard, P., eds. 2008. Health transitions in Arctic populations. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Colleen M. DavisonDepartment of Community Health and EpidemiologyQueen’s University62 Fifth Field Company LaneKingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canadadavisonc@queensu.caTHE KOCH FAMILY PAPERS. PART 1: NEW INSIGHTS INTO THE LIFE, WORK AND ASPIRATIONS OF GREENLAND GEO-EXPLORER LAUGE KOCH (1892–1964). By PETER R. DAWES. Copenhagen: GEUS Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, 2012. ISBN 978-87-7871-335-3. 220 p., maps, b&w and col-our illus., references, sources and notes. Softbound. DKK150.Svend Lauge Koch (1892 – 1964) was a Danish explorer and natural scientist recognized for organizing and lead-ing many scientific expeditions to Greenland between 1920 and 1959. He is best known for his contributions to the cartography and geology of North-West, North, and East Greenland, but also for the controversies that swirled around him throughout his career, particularly in his home-land of Denmark. Much of what is written about Koch is in Danish, including the only complete biography (Odsbjerg, 1992). Koch’s materials are housed in Danish institutions, mainly the National Archives (Rigsarkivet), but a treasure trove of material remains with the family. The author, Peter R. Dawes, has had access to some, but not all, of the col-lections held by Koch’s children. He refers to the materi-als that he has collated as “the Koch family papers,” and they include diverse papers, field notebooks, graphic mate-rial, newspaper and magazine clippings, and sound record-ings. This book is Part 1 of a planned trilogy; it summarizes the documents and places them in their historical context from the time of Koch’s first trip to Greenland in 1913 until his death. Part 2 will delve into the geological mapping of North Greenland, while Part 3 will cover the activities sur-rounding lead-zinc mining at Mestersvig from 1948 to 1955. Peter R. Dawes was born in 1940 in Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom, and educated at the University of Exeter, where he received his PhD in geology in 1965. He joined the Geological Survey of Greenland (now part of the Geo-logical Survey of Denmark and Greenland) in 1966 as a staff scientist and spent his career with this organization in Copenhagen, becoming fluent in Danish and well versed in Greenlandic. Dawes has participated in 26 summer expedi-tions to Greenland, some of which followed closely in the footsteps of Lauge Koch. Dawes has a longstanding inter-est in polar exploration, as well as a firsthand knowledge of what it takes to do geology in remote, northern Greenland. He has published numerous scholarly articles on Arctic his-tory, including a portrait of Lauge Koch (Dawes, 1991), but this is his first book. Dawes presents The Koch Family Papers, Part 1 as a chronological narrative of Koch’s life and does not intend the book as a biography. That’s good, because—as Dawes is an unabashed fan of Lauge Koch—I find that the treatment is very one-sided. Dawes’ goal is simply to present Koch’s materials in a historical context. What new insights into Koch’s life do the family papers illuminate? Documents in the collection may help unravel the sequence of events leading to the deaths of the Green-landic hunter Hendrik Olsen and the Swedish botanist Thorild Wulff on the Second Thule Expedition led by Knud Rasmussen, the famous polar anthropologist. Olsen disappeared on a hunting trip in July 1917, while Wulff, who was physically unable to continue, died one month later after a starving Koch and two Inuit companions had abandoned him. The two men were never found, and their deaths have been shrouded in mystery. In addition, the family papers clarify Koch’s early ambitions to map northern Greenland and be the first Dane to visit Kap Mor-ris Jesup, along with his recognition that doing so would solidify Denmark’s claim to Greenland. Koch’s subsequent scientific work played a pivotal role in the 1933 decision of the International Court of the Hague to award sover-eignty over all of Greenland to Denmark, and not Norway. But the court case probably drove him toward being more politically motivated than previously assumed. At about the same time as he enjoyed success in government circles, Koch was accused of academic fraud by a group of 11 sci-entists from the Danish academic community, and he sued them for slander. The lawsuit, which Koch referred to as “the Process,” lasted from 1936 to 1938, but affected his entire career. The family papers contain correspondence with prominent international scientists that provide addi-tional information bearing on the contentious career of Lauge Koch.The book is a low-end, softbound publication of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. Six chap-ters cover an obligatory introduction, a review of the Koch archives, a broad overview of the contents of the fam-ily papers, Koch’s role in helping Denmark gain sover-eignty over Greenland, a chronological description of the collection, and the author’s reflections, based on the fam-ily papers, on Koch’s contributions. Chapter 5, the nuts and bolts of the book, describes the contents of the papers in 35 sections that span Koch’s life from his student days, when he completed his first field season in 1913, to the end of his life. The reference list is comprehensive and contains a complete bibliography of Koch’s publications. All the text is segregated up front, while the supplemental notes, illustrations, maps, and tables are tacked on to the end, 

Circumpolar Health Atlas, edited by T. Kue Young, Rajiv Rawat, Winfried Dallmann, Susan Chatwood and Peter Bjerregaard

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Circumpolar Health Atlas, edited by T. Kue Young, Rajiv Rawat, Winfried Dallmann, Susan Chatwood and Peter Bjerregaard

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