Challenging the notion that there was no 'popular imperialism' in France, this important new book examines the importance of France's colonial role in the development of French society and culture after 1870. It assesses the impact of colonial propaganda on public attitudes in France and the relationship between French imperialism, republicanism and nationalism. It analyses metropolitan representations of empire, traces the development of a colonial 'science' and discusses the enduring importance of images and symbols of empire in contemporary France. It will be of interest to students of imperial, social and cultural history as well as to historians of contemporary France.

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.