Geography, Science and National Identity: Scotland since 1520

by Charles W. J. Withers

• ISBN13: 9780521642026
• ISBN10: 0521642027
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-11-19
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Charles Withers’ book brings together work on the history of geography and the history of science with extensive archival analysis to explore how geographical knowledge has been used to shape an understanding of the nation. Using Scotland as an exemplar, the author places geographical knowledge in its wider intellectual context to afford insights into perspectives of empire, national identity and the geographies of science. In so doing, he advances a new area of geographical enquiry, the historical geography of geographical knowledge, and demonstrates how and why different forms of geographical knowledge have been used in the past to constitute national identity, and where those forms were constructed and received. The book will make an important contribution to the study of nationhood and empire and will therefore interest historians, as well as students of historical geography and historians of science. It is theoretically engaging, empirically rich and beautifully illustrated.

Table of Contents

List of figures	xi
List of tables	xiv
Preface	xv
Introduction: geography, science and historical geographies of knowledge	1	(29)
New histories of geography and of geographical knowledge	3	(10)
The social and situated nature of scientific knowledge	13	(11)
Towards a historical geography of geographical knowledge	24	(6)
Geography, identity and the making of the nation, 1520--1682	30	(39)
Geographical knowledge and national identity in early modern Europe	31	(9)
'Writing Scotland': historical traditions, chorography and national identity	40	(12)
'Knowing one's bounds': Timothy Pont's chorographical survey of Scotland	52	(4)
Theories of empire and 'Greater Britain': the Union of 1603 as a geographical problem	56	(5)
Symbolising identity: Scotland and Britain display'd, 1604--1661	61	(8)
Geography, credibility and national knowledge, 1682--1707	69	(43)
Sibbald's geographies: the production of credible geographical knowledge	70	(14)
Competing geographies, testing credibility	84	(12)
Sites of knowledge and the public engagement with geography	96	(8)
Scotland's imperial geographical imagination: empire, union and the Darien scheme	104	(8)
Geography, Enlightenment and the public sphere, 1707--1830	112	(46)
Geography in the Enlightenment: a partial survey	114	(5)
Geography's public, 1708--1830	119	(15)
Teaching places: geography in Scottish schools and universities, 1727--1821	134	(8)
'Visualising the nation': survey, geographical knowledge and national identity	142	(16)
National identity, geographical knowledge and civic enterprise, c. 1830--1884	158	(37)
Geography and the public sphere, c. 1830--1860: polite learning and civic improvement	160	(12)
Historical geographies of schools and texts, 1838--1884	172	(10)
Historical geographies of local natural knowledge: field clubs and natural history societies, 1831--1887	182	(13)
Geography and national identity in an age of high empire, 1884--1930	195	(41)
Institutionalising the subject	198	(12)
Science and the nature of national survey	210	(15)
Patrick Geddes, geographical visions and the `Temple of Geography'	225	(11)
Conclusion: A historical geography of geographical knowledge	236	(20)
Making the nation, making geography: Scotland's geographical constitution	240	(5)
National identity and geographical practice	245	(6)
Sites and audiences	251	(3)
Historical geographies of knowledge	254	(2)
Appendix Principal respondents to Sir Robert Sibbald's geographical queries	256	(7)
Bibliography	263	(40)
Index	303