Heights of nationalism

Book review of The World Beneath Their Feet: The British, the Americans and the Nazis and the Race to Summit the Himalayas

The resurgence of aggressive nationalism in this age of uber-globalisation has never been more evident than in the competition among nations for Covid-19 drugs and vaccines. But in the heyday of European empires nationalism found potent expression in an extreme adventure sport — exploration. By the early 20th century, only the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain range with 14 peaks soaring over 8,000 metres (26,246 feet), remained out of reach. The World Beneath Their Feet is the story of how the superpower of the day, Britain, the rising one, America, and the aspirational one, Nazi Germany, focused their competitive attentions