Governmentality and the Mastery of Territory in Nineteenth-Century America

by Matthew G. Hannah

Overview

Late nineteenth-century America was a time of industrialization and urbanization. Immigration was increasing and traditional hierarchies were being challenged. Combining empirical and theoretical material, Hannah explores the modernization of the American federal government during this period. Discussions of gender, race and colonial knowledge engage with Foucault's ideas on "governmentality." Through an analysis of the work of Francis A. Walker, a prominent political economist and educator of the time, the author demonstrates that the modernization of the American national state was a thoroughly spatial and explicitly geographical project.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521660334
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/14/2000
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography , #32
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	6.18(w) x 9.33(h) x 0.94(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Governmentality in context; Part I: 2. The formation of governmental objects in late nineteenth century American discourse; 3. Francis A. Walker and the formation of American governmental subjectivity; 4. American manhood and the strains of governmental subjectivity; Part II: 5. The spatial politics of governmental knowledge; 6. An American exceptionalist political economy; 7. Manhood, space and governmental regulation; Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

"Hannah effectively demonstrates that an approach informed by governmentality can shed light on certain features of American state activity during the late nineteenth century." Journal of Interdisciplinary History

From the Publisher