Geography Militant

Cultures of Exploration and Empire

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by Felix Driver

Blackwell Publishers

Due/Published October 2000, 272 pages, paper

ISBN 0631201122

An account of the relations between geographical knowledge, exploration and empire, this book traces the emergence of a modern culture of exploration, as reflected in the role of institutions such as the Royal Geographical Society and the reputation of explorers such as Livingstone and Stanley. The production and dissemination of geographical knowledge in the age of empire involved much more than the collection of new facts: it required the mobilization of a wide range of material and imaginative resources. Geography Militant pays particular attention to the contradictory and contested nature of geography, unravelling contemporary debates over the status of fieldwork, the ethics of exploration and the relations between science and sensationalism. These issues are of more than historical interest, as the culture of Geography Militant continually regenerates itself in the worlds of advertising, tourism and heritage.

Contents:

1. Geographical Knowledge, Exploration and Empire.
2. The Royal Geographical Society and the Empire of Science.
3. Hints to Travellers: Observation in the Field.
4. Missionary of Science: David Livingstone and the Exploration of Africa.
5. Becoming an Explorer: The Martyrdom of Winwood Reade.
6. Exploration by Warfare: Henry Morton Stanley and his Critics.
7. Making Representations: From an African Exhibition to the High Court of Justice.
8. Exploring Darkest England: Mapping the Heart of Empire.
9. Geography Militant and its After-life.
Index.