Time to Eat the Dogs
A Podcast About Science, History, and ExplorationMichael Robinson
Welcome to Time to Eat the Dogs, a weekly podcast about science, history, and exploration. The goal of this podcast is to broaden the conversation about these topics beyond the limits of my own discipline, the history of science. Lots of people –explorers, scientists, artists, anthropologists, literary scholars, and historians– have things to say about travel in extreme environments. My hope is that this podcast will serve as a clearinghouse of ideas about exploration that might connect people who come to the subject with different perspectives.
About Me
I’m a professor of history at Hillyer College, University of Hartford. I study the role of exploration in science and culture. My first book, The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture, winner of the 2008 Book Award from the Forum for the History of Science in America, takes up the story of Arctic exploration in the United States during the height of its popularity, from 1850 to 1910. My second book, The Lost White Tribe: Scientists, Explorers, and the Theory that Changed a Continent, winner of the 2019 Davis Prize in the History of Science, describes at the rise and fall of the Hamitic Hypothesis, a theory claiming that many native peoples were the descendants of a prehistoric “white invasion” from Central Asia. I’m currently working on a project about the integration of women into extreme environment outposts in the 1960s and 1970s.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, or would like to contact me for a presentation, email me at timetoeatthedogs@gmail.com or microbins@hartford.edu. You can receive updates on new episodes by email, RSS feed, Facebook, or Twitter. Instructions for all of these options are available in the third column. My vita and published work are available on Academic.edu
About the Name
For many polar explorers, dogs served two purposes. They pulled sledges, and when they broke down, they were eaten as food, first by the healthier dogs, and then by the expedition party. Sometimes this happened as a last resort. Sometimes it was a part of a plan, a calculation of food, weight, and distance.
Exploration was difficult, even deadly, work. Explorers had to make decisions with a rational, and at times ruthless, efficiency. This did not always jibe with their public personae however. Explorers were often associated with the noblest traits of the nation, a set of ideals that did not include eating dogs (or other members of the party).
There’s some dark humor in the name, but it also illustrates something more broadly true: explorers had to hew closely to complicated, even contradictory, codes of behavior. They were expected to be fiercely patriotic yet were often deeply egocentric. They seemed desperate to escape civilization yet also seemed equally obsessed with their public images back home. They often put themselves at the center of their accounts even though their expeditions were often dependent upon the help of assistants and local peoples. For me, these contradictions are the most interesting part of exploration history because they are most revealing about society, culture, and human nature. And they make good stories too.
Contact Michael Robinson
3 Comments»
[…] Jump to Comments At Time to Eat the Dogs the always excellent Michael Robinson (and if you don’t already regularly read him you should) has a stimulating review of a […]
Time to Eat the Dogs 
I am really looking forward to following your blog! What a great speciality!