Description |
314 pages : maps ; 24 cm |
Contents |
Part I -- 1. Images of the world -- 2. The diffusion of knowledge -- Part II -- 3. Asia: growing awareness and changing perspectives in the eighteenth century -- 4. The religions of Asia -- 5. Asia and the progress of civil society -- 6. Asia: images of a continent in 1800 -- Part III -- 7. Savages noble and ignoble: concepts of the North American Indian -- 8. 'One rude chaos': accounts of Africa in the slave trade era -- 9. 'Enlarging the sphere of contemplation': the exploration of the Pacific 1760-1800 |
Summary |
This book presents a history of British perceptions of the exotic peoples and lands of Asia, North America, West Africa, and the Pacific who became well-known during that great age of exploration. It shows how the contours of intellectual and cultural history changed as news poured in. Philosophers contemplated man in a state of nature; the study of religion was broadened as Hinduism, the naturalistic religions of North America, and Chinese rites and ceremonies were revealed. Racial issues like slavery and negritude, questions about advanced versus backward nations, the great Chain of Being argument, and the Unchanging East theory became concerns of educated persons. Along with the impact of explorations on men's ideas, the use of “sciences” like anthropology, ethnology, archeology, and philology came into vogue. And not incidentally, interest in empire grew, missionary zeal was strengthened, and tolerance and intolerance toward strangers struggled for dominance. It could be argued that by the end of this age of “enlightenment,” investigation of the inhabitants of these distant lands had reinforced those assumptions of superiority that were an essential feature of British global expansion. To that extent this book is concerned with the intellectual foundations of the second British empire, for it seeks to show how many of the attitudes present in Britain's dealings with the world in her imperial heyday were formulated during the eighteenth century |
Analysis |
Non-European civilizations. Attitudes of Britons,. 1700-1800 |
Notes |
Maps on lining papers |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
Subject |
British -- Foreign countries -- History -- 17th century.
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British -- Foreign countries -- History -- 18th century.
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Discoveries in geography.
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Enlightenment -- Great Britain.
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Enlightenment.
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Ethnocentrism -- History -- 18th century.
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SUBJECT |
Great Britain -- Foreign relations http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056684 -- 17th century.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2002012473
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Great Britain -- Foreign relations -- 18th century.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056700
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Great Britain -- Intellectual life -- 17th century.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056854
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Great Britain -- Intellectual life -- 18th century.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056855
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Great Britain http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79023147 -- Relations. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh00007590
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Author |
Williams, Glyndwr.
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LC no. |
82128579 |
ISBN |
0460045547 |
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