Description
Book SynopsisConsidering the European representation and understanding of landscape and nature in early nineteenth-century India, this book shows the diversity of European (especially British) responses to the Indian environment and the ways in which these contributed to the wider colonizing process.
Trade Review"An eminently readable book, The Tropics and the Traveling Gaze unravels the mysteries of the tropics in India as constructed by nineteenth-century Europeans. . . . A richly documented and important book which will be useful to students from a range of interdisciplinary fields."
* Victorian Studies *
"The Tropics and the Traveling Gaze deserves a wide audience. Any historian of biology interested in British imperialism, Romanticism, scientific networks (particularly those linking metropolitan and colonial naturalists) and imperial environmental history will find it an enjoyable, informative, and intellectually stimulating read."
* Journal of the History of Biology *
"The Tropics and the Traveling Gaze is a valuable book for historians and anthropologists..Despite the vast literature on all the themes presented in the book, none connects these various topics as elegantly as the current volume. Arnold's writing style is graceful, his arguments are persuasive, and his creative use of non-governmental sources allow for an original approach to a history of the land."
* Itinerario *
"David Arnold's absorbing study will reward anyone interested in botany and biogeography, scientific travel, colonial science, and the impact of Romanticism on nineteenth-century science."
* ISIS *
"In The Tropics and the Traveling Gaze, David Arnold deftly untangles and analyses the nature of the connections between literary representations of the land, the development of botanical knowledge, and the consolidation of colonial power."
* Times Literary Supplement *
"A fascinating cast of travelers, scientists, and others populate Arnold's account…it addresses important conceptual issues and provides an entertaining account full of specific insights and fascinating characters. Anyone interested in the cultural dimensions of the constructions of power and knowledge in colonial settings will find the book worthwhile."
* History *
"A rich study of changing British perceptions of India… it will provide scholars of science and nature in colonial India many new insights about an overlooked period and subject. Arnold's arguments about how scientific travelers of the early nineteenth century reimagined India as a place of death and tropicality are nuanced and powerful. His contentions about the their connection to growing British power…are also important."
* Environmental History *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
1. Itinerant Empire
2. In a Land of Death
3. Romanticism and Improvement
4. From the Orient to the Tropics
5. Networks and Knowledges
6. Botany and the Bounds of Empire
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
