Natural Science and the Origins of the British Empire
Sarah Irving
Empires in Perspective
978 1 85196 889 3: 234x156mm: £60.00/$99.00
978 1 85196 571 7
Irving places seventeenth-century science in the context of England’s colonization of the Atlantic world. She argues that men of science held a conception of empire which has been overlooked by scholars. This was the idea of man’s original dominion over the earth. Endowed to Adam in the Garden of Eden, this mastery over the world consisted in his perfect knowledge of nature. In the Fall, however, Adam lost his omniscience and consequently his earthly empire.
Scientists, including Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and John Locke, believed that it was England’s task to restore man’s dominion over nature. In this project, the Atlantic colonies were a repository of lost knowledge; a storehouse of information about climate, animals, plants and people. Bringing the history of early modern science to bear upon the intellectual origins of the British Empire, Irving investigates the way that England’s colonial empire became tied to the redemptive project of restoring man’s empire of knowledge.
Irving was awarded 2006 Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction for this book.
Sample pages
- Natural Science and the Origins of the British Empire: Introduction
- Natural Science and the Origins of the British Empire: Index
Readership
Empire Studies, History of Science, History of Travel and Exploration, Early Modern History
Contents
Chapter 1: ‘In a Pure Soil’: Francis Bacon and the Empire of Knowledge
Chapter 2: The Hartlib Circle’s Pansophical Empire
Chapter 3: Robert Boyle’s Programme for Empire
Chapter 4: Museums and Natural Histories: The Royal Society and the Atlantic World 1660-1700
Chapter 5: All Things Richly to Enjoy: John Locke and the Colonial Language of Improvement
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