Rachael Squire is a Political Geographer and Lecturer in Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research engages with the concepts of territory, embodiment, and 'volume' with a particular focus on the space of the sea.
Request Academic Copy
Please copy the ISBN for submitting review copy form
Description
1. Introduction: Towards the 'Deep Dark Sea' 2. 'Taking Chances for all of Mankind': Taming the Underwater Frontier 3. Domesticating and Dishwashing: Making Home on the Seafloor 4. 'A Breed Apart': Taking the Measure of Man 5. 'Think Helium': Submarine Pressures and Elemental Entanglements 6. Companions, Zappers, and Invaders: The Animals of Sealab 7. From Sealab to Skylab: Inhabiting Extremes 8. Conclusions
Extending critical geopolitical analysis to investigate an unlikely venue, Rachel Squire brilliantly shows how American cold war geopolitical culture was a combination of science, masculinity and exploration. This fascinating account of a nearly forgotten scientific project explores the underwater world of Sealab, its aquanauts, scientists and their dangerous experimental habitat, built in the quest to dominate the frontier space of the ocean. -- Simon Dalby, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University A fascinating study of a little-known story in the Cold War. Using archival and other historical sources, Squire takes us beneath the surface to explore the world of Sealab with its multiple geographies. Engagingly written and conceptually innovative, this is an important contribution to political geography and wider debates about territory, volume and materiality. -- Stuart Elden, Professor of Political Theory and Geography, University of Warwick