For a British Empire that stretched across much of the globe at the
start of the nineteenth century, the interiors of Africa and
Australia remained intriguing mysteries. The challenge of opening
these continents to imperial influence fell to a proto-professional
coterie of determined explorers. They sought knowledge, adventure,
and fame, but often experienced confusion, fear, and failure. The
Last Blank Spaces follows the arc of these explorations, from idea
to practice, from intention to outcome, from myth to reality. Those
who conducted the hundreds of expeditions that probed Africa and
Australia in the nineteenth century adopted a mode of scientific
investigation that had been developed by previous generations of
seaborne explorers. They likened the two continents to oceans,
empty spaces that could be made truly knowable only by mapping,
measuring, observing, and preserving. They found, however, that
their survival and success depended less on this system of
universal knowledge than it did on the local knowledge possessed by
native peoples. While explorers sought to advance the interests of
Britain and its emigrant communities, Dane Kennedy discovers a more
complex outcome: expeditions that failed ignominiously, explorers
whose loyalties proved ambivalent or divided, and, above all, local
states and peoples who diverted expeditions to serve their own
purposes. The collisions, and occasional convergences, between
British and indigenous values, interests, and modes of knowing the
world are brought to the fore in this fresh and engaging study.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
