Nature's government : science, imperial Britain, and the 'Improvement' of the World /

Nature's Government is an attempt to juxtapose the histories of Britain, western science and imperialism. It shows how colonial expansion, from the age of Alexander the Great to the twentieth century, led to complex kinds of knowledge. Science, and botany in particular, was fed by information c...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Drayton, Richard Harry
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: New Haven, Connecticut : Yale University Press, [2000].
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Description
Summary:Nature's Government is an attempt to juxtapose the histories of Britain, western science and imperialism. It shows how colonial expansion, from the age of Alexander the Great to the twentieth century, led to complex kinds of knowledge. Science, and botany in particular, was fed by information culled from the exploration of the globe. At the same time science was useful to imperialism. It guided the exploitation of exotic environments and made conquest seem necessary, legitimate and beneficial.
Physical Description:xxi, 346 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:0300059760
9780300059762