Surveyors of Empire

Surveyors of Empire PDF Author: Stephen John Hornsby
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773538151
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
British imperial power was greatly bolstered by new techniques in surveying and map-making during the eighteenth century. Well before James Cook sailed for the Pacific in 1768, British army engineers working on the coastline from Quebec to Rhode Island had set new scientific standards for cartography that would assist the British in mapping future conquests. Surveyors of Empire explores the groundbreaking work of these engineers, which formed the basis of The Atlantic Neptune, a four-volume hydrographic atlas that stands as a monument of European Enlightenment science. Using research from both sides of the Atlantic, Stephen Hornsby examines the development of British military cartography in North America during and after the Seven Years War, as well as advancements in military and scientific equipment used in surveying. At the same time, he follows the land speculation of two leading surveyors, Samuel Holland and J.F.W. Des Barres, and the publication history of The Atlantic Neptune. Richly illustrated with images from The Atlantic Neptune and earlier maps, Surveyors of Empire is an insightful account of the relationship between science and imperialism, and the British shaping of the Atlantic world.

Surveyors of Empire

Surveyors of Empire PDF Author: Stephen John Hornsby
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773538151
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Get Book

Book Description
British imperial power was greatly bolstered by new techniques in surveying and map-making during the eighteenth century. Well before James Cook sailed for the Pacific in 1768, British army engineers working on the coastline from Quebec to Rhode Island had set new scientific standards for cartography that would assist the British in mapping future conquests. Surveyors of Empire explores the groundbreaking work of these engineers, which formed the basis of The Atlantic Neptune, a four-volume hydrographic atlas that stands as a monument of European Enlightenment science. Using research from both sides of the Atlantic, Stephen Hornsby examines the development of British military cartography in North America during and after the Seven Years War, as well as advancements in military and scientific equipment used in surveying. At the same time, he follows the land speculation of two leading surveyors, Samuel Holland and J.F.W. Des Barres, and the publication history of The Atlantic Neptune. Richly illustrated with images from The Atlantic Neptune and earlier maps, Surveyors of Empire is an insightful account of the relationship between science and imperialism, and the British shaping of the Atlantic world.

Mapping an Empire

Mapping an Empire PDF Author: Matthew H. Edney
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226184862
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
In this fascinating history of the British surveys of India, Matthew H. Edney relates how imperial Britain used modern survey techniques to not only create and define the spatial image of its Empire, but also to legitimate its colonialist activities. "There is much to be praised in this book. It is an excellent history of how India came to be painted red in the nineteenth century. But more importantly, Mapping an Empire sets a new standard for books that examine a fundamental problem in the history of European imperialism."—D. Graham Burnett, Times Literary Supplement "Mapping an Empire is undoubtedly a major contribution to the rapidly growing literature on science and empire, and a work which deserves to stimulate a great deal of fresh thinking and informed research."—David Arnold, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History "This case study offers broadly applicable insights into the relationship between ideology, technology and politics. . . . Carefully read, this is a tale of irony about wishful thinking and the limits of knowledge."—Publishers Weekly

The New Map of Empire

The New Map of Empire PDF Author: S. Max Edelson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674978994
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
In 1763 British America stretched from Hudson Bay to the Keys, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Using maps that Britain created to control its new lands, Max Edelson pictures the contested geography of the British Atlantic world and offers new explanations of the causes and consequences of Britain’s imperial ambitions before the Revolution.

The New Map of Empire

The New Map of Empire PDF Author: S. Max Edelson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674972112
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
In 1763 British America stretched from Hudson Bay to the Keys, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Using maps that Britain created to control its new lands, Max Edelson pictures the contested geography of the British Atlantic world and offers new explanations of the causes and consequences of Britain’s imperial ambitions before the Revolution.

Empire in Retreat

Empire in Retreat PDF Author: Victor Bulmer-Thomas
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300235194
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 461

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Book Description
A sweeping history of the United States through the lens of empire—and an incisive look forward as the nation retreats from the global stage A respected authority on international relations and foreign policy, Victor Bulmer-Thomas offers a grand survey of the United States as an empire. From its territorial expansion after independence, through hegemonic rule following World War II, to the nation’s current imperial retreat, the United States has had an uneasy relationship with the idea of itself as an empire. In this book Bulmer-Thomas offers three definitions of empire—territorial, informal, and institutional—that help to explain the nation’s past and forecast a future in which the United States will cease to play an imperial role. Arguing that the move toward diminished geopolitical dominance reflects the aspirations of most U.S. citizens, he asserts that imperial retreat does not necessarily mean national decline and may ultimately strengthen the nation-state. At this pivotal juncture in American history, Bulmer-Thomas’s uniquely global perspective will be widely read and discussed across a range of fields.

The British Empire

The British Empire PDF Author: Hugh Gunn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description


Habits of Empire

Habits of Empire PDF Author: Walter Nugent
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1400078180
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
Since its founding, the United States' declared principles of liberty and democracy have often clashed with aggressive policies of imperial expansion. In this sweeping narrative history, acclaimed scholar Walter Nugent explores this fundamental American contradiction by recounting the story of American land acquisition since 1782 and shows how this steady addition of territory instilled in the American people a habit of empire-building. From America's early expansions into Transappalachia and the Louisiana Purchase through later additions of Alaska and island protectorates in the Caribbean and Pacific, Nugent demonstrates that the history of American empire is a tale of shifting motives, as the early desire to annex land for a growing population gave way to securing strategic outposts for America's global economic and military interests. Thorough, enlightening, and well-sourced, this book explains the deep roots of American imperialism as no other has done.

Unfinished Empire

Unfinished Empire PDF Author: John Darwin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1620400391
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
John Darwin's After Tamerlane, a sweeping six-hundred-year history of empires around the globe, marked him as a historian of "massive erudition" and narrative mastery. In Unfinished Empire, he marshals his gifts to deliver a monumental one-volume history of Britain's imperium-a work that is sure to stand as the most authoritative, most compelling treatment of the subject for a generation. Darwin unfurls the British Empire's beginnings and decline and its extraordinary range of forms of rule, from settler colonies to island enclaves, from the princely states of India to ramshackle trading posts. His penetrating analysis offers a corrective to those who portray the empire as either naked exploitation or a grand "civilizing mission." Far from ever having a "master plan," the British Empire was controlled by a range of interests often at loggerheads with one another and was as much driven on by others' weaknesses as by its own strength. It shows, too, that the empire was never stable: to govern was a violent process, inevitably creating wars and rebellions. Unfinished Empire is a remarkable, nuanced history of the most complex polity the world has ever known, and a serious attempt to describe the diverse, contradictory ways-from the military to the cultural-in which empires really function. This is essential reading for any lover of sweeping history, or anyone wishing to understand how the modern world came into being.

Empire Conference of the Survey Officers ... Report of Proceedings

Empire Conference of the Survey Officers ... Report of Proceedings PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cartography
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description


Visions of Empire

Visions of Empire PDF Author: Krishan Kumar
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691192804
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 597

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Book Description
"In this extraordinary volume, Krishan Kumar provides us with a brilliant tour of some of history's most important empires, demonstrating the critical importance of imperial ideas and ideologies for understanding their modalities of rule and the conflicts that beset them. In doing so, he interrogates the contested terrain between nationalism and empire and the legacies that empires leave behind."--Mark R. Beissinger, Princeton University "This is an excellent book with original insights into the history of empires and the discourses and rhetoric of their rulers and defenders. Kumar's writing is lively and free of jargon, and his research is prodigious. He manages to bring clarity and perspective to a complex subject."--Ronald Grigor Suny, author of "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide "A masterly piece of work."--Anthony Pagden, author of The Burdens of Empire: 1539 to the Present