Nature's Government: Science, Imperial Britain, and the "Improvement" of the World - Hardcover

Drayton, Professor Richard; Drayton, Richard

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9780300059762: Nature's Government: Science, Imperial Britain, and the "Improvement" of the World
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0300059760 ISBN 13: 9780300059762
Publisher: Yale University Press, 2000

Synopsis

Nature’s Government is a daring 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 more 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.

Richard Drayton traces the history of this idea of “improvement” from its Christian agrarian origins in the sixteenth century to its inclusion in theories of enlightened despotism. It was as providers of legitimacy, as much as of universal knowledge, aesthetic perfection, and agricultural plenty, he argues, that botanic gardens became instruments of government, first in continental Europe and then, by the late eighteenth century, in Britain and the British Empire.

At the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the rise of which throughout the nineteenth century is a central theme of this book, a pioneering scientific institution was added to a spectacular ornamental garden. At Kew, “improving” the world became a potent argument for both the patronage of science at home and Britain’s prerogatives abroad. This book provides a portrait of how the ambitions of the Enlightenment shaped the great age of British power and how empire changed the British experience and the modern world.

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About the Author

Richard Drayton is associate professor of history at the University of Virginia.

From the Inside Flap

Nature's Government is a daring 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 more 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. Richard Drayton traces the history of this idea of "improvement" from its Christian agrarian origins in the sixteenth century to its inclusion in theories of enlightened despotism. It was as providers of legitimacy, as much as of universal knowledge, aesthetic perfection, and agricultural plenty, he argues, that botanic gardens became instruments of government, first in continental Europe and then, by the late eighteenth century, in Britain and the British Empire.At the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the rise of which throughout the nineteenth century is a central theme of this book, a pioneering scientific institution was added to a spectacular ornamental garden. At Kew, "improving" the world became a potent argument for both the patronage of science at home and Britain's prerogatives abroad. This book provides a portrait of how the ambitions of the Enlightenment shaped the great age of British power and how empire changed the British experience and the modern world.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Yale University Press
Publication date
2000
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0300059760
ISBN 13 
9780300059762
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
354
Rating
  • 4.00 out of 5 stars
    22 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9788125022770: Nature's Government: Science, Imperial Britain and the 'Improvement' of the World [Paperback] [Jan 01, 2005] Richard Drayton

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  8125022775 ISBN 13:  9788125022770
Publisher: Orient BlackSwan, 2005
Softcover