Charting an empire : geography at the English universities, 1580-1620 / Lesley B. Cormack.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cormack, Lesley B., 1957-

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Geography--Study and teaching (Higher)--England--History.

Geography.

Geography--Study and teaching (Higher).

History.

England.

Physical Description:

xvi, 281 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Summary:

How did early modern England -- an island nation on the periphery of world affairs -- transform itself into the center of a worldwide empire? Lesley B. Cormack argues that the newly institutionalized study of geography played a crucial role in fueling England's imperial ambitions.

Cormack demonstrates that geography was part of the Arts curriculum between 1580 and 1620, read at university by a broad range of soon-to-be political, economic, and religious leaders. By teaching these young Englishmen to view their country in a global context, and to see England playing a major role on that stage, geography supplied a set of shared assumptions about the feasibility and desirability of an English empire. Thus, the study of geography helped create an ideology of empire that made possible the actual forays of the next century.

Geography emerges in Cormack's account as the fruitful ground between college and court, in whose well-prepared soil the seeds of English imperialism took root. "Charting an Empire" will interest historians of science, geography, cartography, education, and empire.

Contents:

Introduction: Charting an Empire 1

1 Geography and the Changing Face of the English University 17

2 The Social Context of Geography 48

3 Mathematical Geography: Theory at Practice 90

4 Descriptive Geography: Tales of Prester John and of the Palace of Edo 129

5 Chorography: Geography Writ Small 163

6 The Patronage of Patriotism: The "Third University" of London 203

Conclusion: Geography and the Idea of Empire 225

Appendix A Sources for Book List 231

Appendix B Geography Books Owned by Students, Fellows, and Libraries of Selected Colleges 234.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-270) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

0226116069

0226116077

OCLC:

36900728