19th-century British imperial expansion dramatically shaped today's globalised world. Imperialism encouraged mass migrations of people, shifting flora, fauna and commodities around the world and led to a series of radical environmental changes never before experienced in history. Eco-Cultural Networks and the British Empire explores how these networks shaped ecosystems, cultures and societies throughout the British Empire and how they were themselves transformed by local and regional conditions. This multi-authored volume begins with a rigorous theoretical analysis of the categories of 'empire' and 'imperialism'. Its chapters, written by leading scholars in the field, draw methodologically from recent studies in environmental history, post-colonial theory and the history of science. Together, these perspectives provide a comprehensive historical understanding of how the British Empire reshaped the globe during the 19th and 20th centuries. This book will be an important addition to the literature on British imperialism and global ecological change.
19th-century British imperial expansion dramatically shaped today's globalised world. Imperialism encouraged mass migrations of people, shifting flora, fauna and commodities around the world and led to a series of radical environmental changes never before experienced in history. Eco-Cultural Networks and the British Empire explores how these networks shaped ecosystems, cultures and societies throughout the British Empire and how they were themselves transformed by local and regional conditions. This multi-authored volume begins with a rigorous theoretical analysis of the categories of 'empire' and 'imperialism'. Its chapters, written by leading scholars in the field, draw methodologically from recent studies in environmental history, post-colonial theory and the history of science. Together, these perspectives provide a comprehensive historical understanding of how the British Empire reshaped the globe during the 19th and 20th centuries. This book will be an important addition to the literature on British imperialism and global ecological change.
Foreword John M. MacKenzie Part I - Framing Imperial and Regional Networks of Nature 1. Eco-Cultural Networks in the British Empire, 1860-1940 James Beattie (University of Waikato, New Zealand), Edward Melillo (Amherst College, USA), Emily O'Gorman (Macquarie University, Australia) 2. Climate, Empire and Environment Georgina Endfield (University of Nottingham, England) and Sam Randalls (University College, London, England) 3. The Chinese State and Agriculture in an Age of Global Empires, 1880-1949 Joseph Lawson (Newcastle University, England) 4. Empire in a Cup: Imagining Colonial Geographies Through British Tea Consumption Edward Melillo 5. Africa, Europe and the Birds Between Them Nancy Jacobs (Brown University, USA) Part II - Local Cultural Networks of Exchange 6. Peradeniya and the plantation economy in Ceylon Eugenia Herbert (Mount Holyoke College, USA) 7. Eco-cultural networks in southern China and colonial New Zealand, 1860s-1910s James Beattie 8. Colonial Cultures of Hunting Kate Hunter (Victoria University, New Zealand) 9. Game of Empires: Hunting in Treaty-Port China Robert Peckham (University of Hong Kong) 10. Experiments, Local Environments, and Networks in Rice farming in South-Eastern Australia, 1900-1945 Emily O'Gorman 11. Animals and Urban Environments: Managing Domestic Animals in Nineteenth-Century Winnipeg Sean Kheraj (York University, Canada) 13. Reflections and New Research Directions Bibliography Index
An extensive picture of imperial environmental history within and beyond the British Empire.
James Beattie is Senior Lecturer at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He is the author of Empire and Environmental Anxiety (2011) and a founding co-editor of the journal International Review of Environmental History. Edward Melillo is Assistant Professor at Amherst College, USA. He teaches courses on global environmental history and is the author of Strangers on Familiar Soil. Emily O'Gorman is an environmental and cultural historian in the Department of Environment and Geography at Macquarie University, Australia. She has published in a range of journals and is the author of Flood Country: An Environmental History of the Murray-Darling Basin (2012). She is an Associate Editor of the journal Environmental Humanities.
This new collection of essays ... demonstrates the rewards of
examining environments through the lens of empire, and vice versa.
It also confirms the benefits of transcending the boundaries of
particular colonies or metropole–colony relations.
*English Historical Review*
The instant ‘global moment’ has a history. At our present time of
global environmental thinking, it is timely to pay attention to the
history of how ecological ideas travelled through imperial networks
around the world in the past. These eminent historians together
present an exciting theoretical framework and a wealth of nuanced
stories about how imperialism shaped the natural world, and Nature
responded.
*Libby Robin, Professor of Environmental History, Australian
National University and co-editor of The Future of Nature and
Ecology and Empire*
This edited collection offers environmental historians and
historians of empire an innovative framework through which to map
and comprehend the complex interactions and dependencies between
the peoples and places of the British Empire.
*Australian Journal of Politics and History*
This volume is a significant contribution to the [field] ... [A]n
unusually well-edited anthology and an excellent and engaging
read.
*Environmental History*
In sum, here we have a nice book: useful - the chapters all end
with a bibliography that is succinct but relevant and up-to-date -
offering avenues for reflection, case studies that are often
exciting, and an innovative concept.
*Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine (Bloomsbury
translation)*
The sun never set on the British Empire, nor did environmental
change ever cease. This volume shows how local forces and imperial
networks joined to alter ecologies, economies, cultures, and
societies from the 1840s to the 1940s everywhere from Canada to New
Zealand to Ceylon to South Africa. With essays on everything from
climate and commodities to birds and urban beasts -- and much else
besides -- this book is a most welcome addition to the field now
taking shape at the junction of environmental and imperial
history.
*John R. McNeill, Professor of History, Georgetown University,
USA*
This diverse collection of essays from around the globe provides
fascinating and stimulating perspectives on the reciprocal webs of
empire. In linking diverse regions such as China, New Zealand,
Australia and Canada, the authors combine their innovative research
with clear writing. Their unravelling of complex transnational and
trans-colonial eco-cultural networks deserves close attention from
all who are interested in understanding more fully how the
kaleidoscopic imperial exchange of commodities and environmental
ideas shaped our world.
*Jane Carruthers, Professor Emeritus of History, University of
South Africa*
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
