Charting an Empire: Geography at the English Universities 1580-1620

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University of Chicago Press, Dec 8, 1997 - History - 281 pages
How did early modern England—an island nation on the periphery of world affairs—transform itself into the center of a worldwide empire? Lesley B. Cormack argues that the newly institutionalized study of geography played a crucial role in fueling England's imperial ambitions.

Cormack demonstrates that geography was part of the Arts curriculum between 1580 and 1620, read at university by a broad range of soon-to-be political, economic, and religious leaders. By teaching these young Englishmen to view their country in a global context, and to see England playing a major role on that stage, geography supplied a set of shared assumptions about the feasibility and desirability of an English empire. Thus, the study of geography helped create an ideology of empire that made possible the actual forays of the next century.

Geography emerges in Cormack's account as the fruitful ground between college and court, in whose well-prepared soil the seeds of English imperialism took root. Charting an Empire will interest historians of science, geography, cartography, education, and empire.

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Contents

Charting an Empire
1
1 Geography and the Changing Face of the English University
17
2 The Social Context of Geography
48
Theory at Practice
90
Tales of Prester John and of the Palace of Edo
129
Geography Writ Small
163
The Third University of London
203
Geography and the Idea of Empire
225
Sources for Book List
231
Geography Books Owned by Students Fellows and Libraries of Selected Colleges
234
Bibliography
249
Index
271
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Page 257 - The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, presenting an exact geography of the kingdomes of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the isles adjoyning. With the shires, hundreds, cities, and shire-townes within the kingdome of England, divided and described by John Speed,

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