Charting an empire : geography at the English universities, 1580-1620
Cormack argues that the study of geography played a crucial role in shaping 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 helped develop a set of shared assumptions about the feasibility and desirability of an English empire. The study of geography also provided new research methods and assumptions about natural philosophy, as well as a threefold approach to the formerly unified field of geography itself. Through its new subdivisions - mathematical geography, descriptive geography, and chorography (local history) - geography encouraged quantification of the world, an inductive methodology, and an ideology that prized utilitarian knowledge above all else
History
xvi, 281 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
9780226116068, 9780226116075, 0226116069, 0226116077
36900728
Introduction: Charting an Empire
1. Geography and the Changing Face of the English University
2. The Social Context of Geography
3. Mathematical Geography: Theory at Practice
4. Descriptive Geography: Tales of Prester John and of the Palace of Edo
5. Chorography: Geography Writ Small
6. The Patronage of Patriotism: The "Third University" of London
Conclusion: Geography and the Idea of Empire
App. B. Geography Books Owned by Students, Fellows, and Libraries of Selected Colleges