Twelve literary scholars and historians investigate the ways in which space and place are politically, religiously, and culturally inflected. Exploring medieval texts as diverse as Icelandic sagas, Ptolemy's Geography, and Mandeville's Travels, the contributors illustrate the intimate connection between geographical conceptions and the mastery of land, the assertion of doctrine, and the performance of sexuality.

The United States has been a space power since its founding, Gordon Fraser writes. The white stars on its flag reveal the dream of continental elites that the former colonies might constitute a "new constellation" in the firmament of nations. The streets and avenues of its capital city were mapped in reference to celestial observations. And as the nineteenth century unfolded, all efforts to colonize the North American continent depended upon the science of surveying, or mapping with reference to celestial movement. Through its built environment, cultural mythology, and exercise of military power, the United States has always treated the cosmos as a territory available for exploitation. In Star Territory Fraser explores how from its beginning, agents of the state, including President John Adams, Admiral Charles Henry Davis, and astronomer Maria Mitchell, participated in large-scale efforts to map the nation onto cosmic space. Through almanacs, maps, and star charts, practical information and exceptionalist mythologies were transmitted to the nation's soldiers, scientists, and citizens. This is, however, only one part of the story Fraser tells. From the country's first Black surveyors, seamen, and publishers to the elected officials of the Cherokee Nation and Hawaiian resistance leaders, other actors established alternative cosmic communities. These Black and indigenous astronomers, prophets, and printers offered ways of understanding the heavens that broke from the work of the U.S. officials for whom the universe was merely measurable and exploitable. Today, NASA administrators advocate public-private partnerships for the development of space commerce while the military seeks to control strategic regions above the atmosphere. If observers imagine that these developments are the direct offshoots of a mid-twentieth-century space race, Fraser brilliantly demonstrates otherwise. The United States' efforts to exploit the cosmos, as well as the resistance to these efforts, have a history that starts nearly two centuries before the Gemini and Apollo missions of the 1960s.

Political theory professor Stuart Elden explores the history of land ownership and control from the ancient to the modern world in The Birth of Territory. Territory is one of the central political concepts of the modern world and, indeed, functions as the primary way the world is divided and controlled politically. Yet territory has not received the critical attention afforded to other crucial concepts such as sovereignty, rights, and justice. While territory continues to matter politically, and territorial disputes and arrangements are studied in detail, the concept of territory itself is often neglected today. Where did the idea of exclusive ownership of a portion of the earth’s surface come from, and what kinds of complexities are hidden behind that seemingly straightforward definition? The Birth of Territory provides a detailed account of the emergence of territory within Western political thought. Looking at ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and early modern thought, Stuart Elden examines the evolution of the concept of territory from ancient Greece to the seventeenth century to determine how we arrived at our contemporary understanding. Elden addresses a range of historical, political, and literary texts and practices, as well as a number of key players—historians, poets, philosophers, theologians, and secular political theorists—and in doing so sheds new light on the way the world came to be ordered and how the earth’s surface is divided, controlled, and administered. “The Birth of Territory is an outstanding scholarly achievement . . . a book that already promises to become a ‘classic’ in geography, together with very few others published in the past decades.” —Political Geography “An impressive feat of erudition.” —American Historical Review

This short introduction conveys the complexities associated with the term "territory" in a clear and accessible manner. It surveys the field and brings theory to ground in the case of Palestine. A clear and accessible introduction to the complexities associated with the term "territory". Provides an interdisciplinary survey of the many strands of research in the field. Addresses specific areas including interpretations of territorial structures; the relationship between territoriality and scale; the validity and fluidity of territory; and the practical, social processes associated with territorial re-configurations. Stresses that our understanding of territory is inseparable from our understanding of power. Uses Israel/Palestine as an extended illustrative case study. The author’s strong legal and geographical background gives the work an authoritative perspective.

For half a century, the United Nations building in New York has been the focus of international inspiration. Its podium has seen petitioners for peace, for independence, for justice. Its murals and statuary express the loftiest ideals. Born of World War II and the struggle against fascism, the UN has been the parent body of many small states, and an arena for the peaceful composition of disputes between the powers. Yet, under its flag, wars have been fought and imperfect compromises brokered. The high language of its universal declarations on human rights and dignities has become cheapened by cynicism. Its servants and institutions have been exposed to decay and corruption. Meanwhile, the filiations of power and alignment which created the world body have been radically altered, while the hierarchy of the UN itself has not. These and other ironies and contradictions are visible in the Headquarters Building on the East River of Manhattan.a building that enshrined the most optimistic elements of modernism in design and symbolized them in function but which was also, from the first, an occasion of dispute between the Rockefellers and Le Corbusier and thus, indirectly, between two conceptions of world order. In a series of photographs, Adam Bartos affirms the beauty of the UN.s modern architecture, while capturing the wear and tear of an idealism thwarted by decades of diplomatic compromise. The text, by Christopher Hitchens, explores the themes of utopia and the limits of governmental good intentions. In a striking series of colour photographs, Adam Bartos affirms the beauty of the UN.s modern architecture while capturing the wear and tear of an idealism thwarted by decades of diplomatic compromise. The accompanying text, written with characteristic wit and acuity by Christopher Hitchens, explores the themes of Utopia and the limits of governmental good intentions.

It takes a strong woman to secure bookish remembrance in future times. The four fascinating Catholic women considered here - Dorothea of Montau (1347-1394), Margery Kempe of Lynn (c. 1373-c. 1440), Mary Ward of Yorkshire (1585-1645), and Elizabeth Cary of Drury Lane (c. 1585-1639) - shock, surprise, and court historical danger.