Geography Militant Cultures of Exploration and Empire

Geography Militant is a compelling 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, unraveling 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. This engaging book will be of interest to scholars and students in Geography, History, Literature, Anthropology, Cultural Studies and the History of Science.

Felix Driver is Professor of Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of Power and Pauperism (1993) and the co-editor of Imperial Cities: Landscape, Display and Identity (1999) and Nature and Science: Essays in the History of Geographical Knowledge (1992). He is an editor of History Workshop Journal.