In this fascinating history of the British surveys of India, Matthew H. Edney relates how imperial Britain used modern survey techniques to not only create and define the spatial image of its Empire, but also to legitimate its colonialist activities. "There is much to be praised in this book. It is an excellent history of how India came to be painted red in the nineteenth century. But more importantly, Mapping an Empire sets a new standard for books that examine a fundamental problem in the history of European imperialism."—D. Graham Burnett, Times Literary Supplement "Mapping an Empire is undoubtedly a major contribution to the rapidly growing literature on science and empire, and a work which deserves to stimulate a great deal of fresh thinking and informed research."—David Arnold, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History "This case study offers broadly applicable insights into the relationship between ideology, technology and politics. . . . Carefully read, this is a tale of irony about wishful thinking and the limits of knowledge."—Publishers Weekly

Geography and Empire re-examines the role of geography in imperialism and reinterprets the geography of empire. It brings together new work by eighteen geographers from ten countries. The book is divided into five parts. Part I considers the early engagement of geographers with the imperial adventures of England and France. Part II focuses on the links between nineteenth-century European imperial expansion and the establishment of the first geographical institutions. Part III examines the rhetoric of geographical description and theory - the climatic determinism that reduced the population of half the world to idle degenerates, and the geopolitics that elevated a small part of the rest to be their rulers. Part IV is concerned with the active role of geographers in imperial administration and planning, and with the beginnings of a critical perspective on imperial ambition. Part V describes the experience of decolonization and of post-colonialism - the ambiguous role of the USA in the former, the difficulties of finding a true voice for the latter. Geography and Empire provides new insights and vivid perspectives not only on the development of the profession and discipline of geography, but on the interactions between individuals, ideas, events and movements - and, most notably, on what happens when one culture invades and attempts to dominate another. It concludes with notes for further reading, a comprehensive bibliography and a full index.