Geographies of Knowledge: Science, Scale, and Spatiality in the Nineteenth Century

by Robert J. Mayhew (Editor), Charles W. J. Withers (Editor)

Overview

A path-breaking exploration of how space, place, and scale influenced the production and circulation of scientific knowledge in the nineteenth century.

Over the past twenty years, scholars have increasingly questioned not just historical presumptions about the putative rise of modern science during the long nineteenth century but also the geographical contexts for and variability of science during the era. In Geographies of Knowledge, an internationally distinguished array of historians and geographers examine the spatialization of science in the period, tracing the ways in which scale and space are crucial to understanding the production, dissemination, and reception of scientific knowledge in the nineteenth century.

Engaging with and extending the influential work of David Livingstone and others on science's spatial dimensions, the book touches on themes of empire, gender, religion, Darwinism, and much more. In exploring the practice of science across four continents, these essays illuminate the importance of geographical perspectives to the study of science and knowledge, and how these ideas made and contested locally could travel the globe.

Dealing with everything from the local spaces of the Surrey countryside to the global negotiations that proposed a single prime meridian, from imperial knowledge creation and exploration in Burma, India, and Africa to studies of metropolitan scientific-cum-theological tussles in Belfast and in Confederate America, Geographies of Knowledge outlines an interdisciplinary agenda for the study of science as geographically situated sets of practices in the era of its modern disciplinary construction. More than that, it outlines new possibilities for all those interested in knowledge's spatial characteristics in other periods.

Contributors: John A. Agnew, Vinita Damodaran, Diarmid A. Finnegan, Nuala C. Johnson, Dane Kennedy, Robert J. Mayhew, Mark Noll, Ronald L. Numbers, Nicolaas Rupke, Yvonne Sherratt, Charles W. J. Withers

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421438559
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	08/18/2020
Series:	Medicine, Science, and Religion in Historical Context
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert J. Mayhew is a professor of historical geography and intellectual history at the University of Bristol. He is the author of Malthus: The Life and Legacies of an Untimely Prophet. Charles W. J. Withers is professor emeritus at the University of Edinburgh and Geographer Royal for Scotland. He is the author of Zero Degrees: Geographies of the Prime Meridian.

Table of Contents

Contributors
Preface
Introduction: Thinking Geographically about Science in the Nineteenth Century
Part I. Locale Studies
1. Locating Malthus's Essay: Localism and the Construction of Social Science, 1798-1826
2. Revisiting Belfast: Tyndall, Science, and the Plurality of Place
Part II. National Studies
3. Henry Hotze in Place: Religion, Science, Confederate Propaganda, and Race
4. "Made in America": The Politics of Place in Debates over Science and Religion
5. Putting the Structuralist Theory of Evolution in Its Place
Part III. Global Studies
6. Science, Sites, and Situated Practice: Debating the Prime Meridian in the International Geographical Congress, 1871-1904
7. Illustrating Nature: Exploration, Natural History, and the Travels of Charlotte Wheeler-Cuffe in Burma
8. Climate, Environment, and the Colonial Experience
9. Lost in Place: Two Expeditions Gone Awry in Africa
Afterword
Index

What People are Saying About This

James A. Secord

With chapters ranging from Burma to Belfast, this fine collection develops new perspectives—particularly involving the critical issue of scale—to shed light on a transformative period of global history.

Felix Driver

Geographies of Knowledge continues the conversation about the value of a geographical perspective on the theory and practice of science, focusing especially on the issue of scale. The book provides ample evidence of the influence of the spatial turn on writing in the history of science over the last two decades.

Bernard Lightman

An original and substantial contribution to the study of science and place. Each engaging chapter sheds light on another aspect of the topic. The volume covers a lot of ground, from the social sciences to the natural sciences. The book will be of interest to historical geographers and historians of science, as well as to graduate students and advanced undergraduates.

Alison Bashford

Geographies of Knowledge shows us how, what, why, and most importantly where nineteenth-century science was imagined, tested, lived, and challenged. We are in the company of the world's most exciting historical geographers.

Simon Naylor

This collection of uniformly excellent essays brings together a really impressive set of historians and geographers.

From the Publisher

An original and substantial contribution to the study of science and place. Each engaging chapter sheds light on another aspect of the topic. The volume covers a lot of ground, from the social sciences to the natural sciences. The book will be of interest to historical geographers and historians of science, as well as to graduate students and advanced undergraduates.
—Bernard Lightman, York University, editor of Companion to the History of Science

This collection of uniformly excellent essays brings together a really impressive set of historians and geographers.
—Simon Naylor, University of Glasgow, author of Regionalizing Science: Placing Knowledges in Victorian England

Geographies of Knowledge shows us how, what, why, and most importantly where nineteenth-century science was imagined, tested, lived, and challenged. We are in the company of the world's most exciting historical geographers.
—Alison Bashford, Director, New Earth Histories Research Program, UNSW Sydney

Geographies of Knowledge continues the conversation about the value of a geographical perspective on the theory and practice of science, focusing especially on the issue of scale. The book provides ample evidence of the influence of the spatial turn on writing in the history of science over the last two decades.
—Felix Driver, Royal Holloway, University of London, coauthor of Hidden Histories of Exploration

A lively set of studies that brings fresh attention to the problem of scientific geographies: how, exactly, does 'where' matter to science? Full of insights about both nineteenth-century science and its historiography, the volume illustrates how scientists themselves mobilized perceptions of space, place, and scale to frame (and re-frame) their subjects.
—Katharine Anderson, York University, author of Predicting the Weather: Victorians and the Science of Meteorology

With chapters ranging from Burma to Belfast, this fine collection develops new perspectives—particularly involving the critical issue of scale—to shed light on a transformative period of global history.
—James A. Secord, University of Cambridge, author of Visions of Science: Books and Readers at the Dawn of the Victorian Age

Katharine Anderson

A lively set of studies that brings fresh attention to the problem of scientific geographies: how, exactly, does 'where' matter to science? Full of insights about both nineteenth-century science and its historiography, the volume illustrates how scientists themselves mobilized perceptions of space, place, and scale to frame (and re-frame) their subjects.

Editorial Reviews

To geographers of science and historians of science interested in space, Geographies of Knowledge will prove useful, though perhaps not paradigm shifting.
—Ashanti Shih, Wellesley College, Isis

While this volume pays tribute to the work of David Livingstone, the intention of this collection of essays is also to challenge and extend his work and to develop new understandings of the spatiality of science during the long nineteenth century.
—Morag Allan Campbell, British Association for Victorian Studies

From the Publisher

While this volume pays tribute to the work of David Livingstone, the intention of this collection of essays is also to challenge and extend his work and to develop new understandings of the spatiality of science during the long nineteenth century.

British Association for Victorian Studies - Morag Allan Campbell

To geographers of science and historians of science interested in space, Geographies of Knowledge will prove useful, though perhaps not paradigm shifting.

Isis - Ashanti Shih