With detailed essays on the Arctic's environment, wildlife, climate, history, exploration, resources, economics, politics, indigenous cultures and languages, conservation initiatives and more, this Encyclopedia is the only major work and comprehensive reference on this vast, complex, changing, and increasingly important part of the globe. Including 305 maps. This Encyclopedia is not only an up-to-date interdisciplinary work of reference for all those involved in teaching or researching Arctic issues, but a fascinating and comprehensive resource for residents of the Arctic, and all those concerned with global environmental issues, sustainability, science, and human interactions with the environment. *Starred Review* Interest in the polar regions has increased in the past few years, as evidenced by the publication of Antarctica and the Arctic: The Complete Encyclopedia (Firefly, 2001), Antarctica: An Encyclopedia from Abbott Ice Shelf to Zooplankton (Firefly, 2002), Encyclopedia of Antarctica and the Southern Oceans (Wiley, 2002), and ABC-CLIO's Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia [RBB My 1 04]. This new encyclopedia, concentrating on the entire North Polar region, is a comprehensive examination of the history, geography, geology, natural resources, peoples, cultures, languages, environments, exploration, exploitation, animals, climate, and ecology of this unique and important area. The Arctic polar region encompasses eight countries: Canada, Finland, Greenland/Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the U.S. It is a place of extremes, of unique and fragile ecosystems, and of numerous groups of indigenous peoples and a wide variety of animals, and it is a major influence on climates throughout the globe. Each of the encyclopedia's three volumes begins with an A-Z entry list, and a thematic entry list is contained in volume 1. All of the more than 1,200 entries conclude with further reading references, and see and see also references are included when appropriate. Biographical entries (for example, Amundsen, Roald; Boas, Franz; Hudson, Henry ) range from a few paragraphs to several pages and give background information, as well as the nature and significance of the subject's work. Some biographical entries include photographs. Place entries provide location, history, status, and climate of the area and are accompanied by maps and photographs. Entries on broader topics, such as Biodiversity, Climate, and Fossils , are more extensive and include numerous maps, graphs, and small black-and-white photographs. More than 350 scientists, historians, and scholars contributed to this work, and their writing is clear and consistent in quality. The liberal use of graphs, tables, and schematics helps to make the more technical topics clear to both scholarly and general readers. The only drawback to this outstanding resource is the 29-page index in volume 3. Long strings of undifferentiated page numbers should have been broken out for ease of use, and titles should not have been indexed on their initial articles (e.g., The History of Greenland ). That, however, is a small fault in an otherwise exceptional reference work that will be an essential addition to academic, scientific, and large public libraries. Nora Harris Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved 'This is the most comprehensive reference tool focusing on the Arctic to be published since the 16-volume Encyclopedia Arctica ... This important resource is one of the most thorough... Highly recommended for academic and public libraries.' - Library Journal 'To say this three-volume set is one of a kind would be an understatement... Everything you ever wanted to know about the Arctic... I commend the contributors, editor, and the publisher for publishing a massive product that will have many years of application...a perfect source for virtually all libraries... Arctic historians and scholars will find this book an absolute necessity.' - The Polar Times 'Offers unique coverage of an important area of the world... The treatment is thorough and topics are explored from a variety of perspectives... The articles are scholarly and academic but will engage the interested lay reader... Students and researchers will be hard pressed to find a more thorough and comprehensive reference work on this region... There is nothing else quite like it... A definite purchase for both academic and larger public libraries.' - Against the Grain "This is the most comprehensive reference tool focusing on the Arctic to be published since the 16-volume Encyclopedia Arctica ... This important resource is one of the most thorough... Highly recommended for academic and public libraries." -- Library Journal (starred review) "To say this three-volume set is one of a kind would be an understatement... Everything you ever wanted to know about the Arctic... I commend the contributors, editor, and the publisher for p