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Geography Militant is a compelling account of the relations between geographical knowledge, exploration, and empire. This book traces the emergence of a modern culture of exploration, as reflected in the role of institutions such as the Royal Geographical Society and the reputation of explorers such as Livingstone and Stanley. The production and dissemination of geographical knowledge in the age of empire involved much more than the collection of new facts: it required the mobilization of a wide range of material and imaginative resources. Geography Militant pays particular attention to the contradictory and contested nature of geography, unraveling contemporary debates over the status of fieldwork, the ethics of exploration and the relations between science and sensationalism. These issues are of more than historical interest, as the culture of Geography Militant continually regenerates itself in the worlds of advertising, tourism and heritage. This engaging book will be of interest to scholars and students in Geography, History, Literature, Anthropology, Cultural Studies and the History of Science. ... Read more

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This work moves beyond the highly visual forms of poverty characteristic of the city, to explore the nature of poverty in rural spaces of Britain and America. The book sets out the key features of poverty in rural areas and highlights the important processes that act to hide key components of rural poverty. ... Read more

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The two leading thinkers in historical geography in the English-speaking world in the mid-twentieth century were Carl Sauer and H.C. Darby.Critical evaluations of the work of Carl Sauer have been published but so far none have examined the contribution of H.C. Darby, although the influence of his ideas on his students and many other contemporary scholars in geography, history and archaeology can be seen in the development of landscape studies and advances in the understanding of processes of geographical change.

This set of twelve previously unpublished essays on historical geography written by Darby in the 1960s explains the basis of his ideas.The material was intended by Darby as a book, but he failed to complete this in his lifetime.

The essays are divided into three quartets of studies relating to England, France and the United States.They are accompanied by contributions from Hugh Clout, T.J. Coppock, Hugh Prince and Michael Williams which both contextualize the material and bring it up-to-date. ... Read more

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This is a fascinating and unique account of Britain's rise as a global imperial power told through the lives of over forty individuals from a huge range of backgrounds. Miles Ogborn relates and connects the stories of monarchs and merchants, planters and pirates, slaves and sailors, captives and captains, reactionaries and revolutionaries, artists and abolitionists from all corners of the globe. These dramatic stories give new life to the exploration of the history and geography of changing global relationships, including settlement in North America, the East India Company's trade and empire, transatlantic trade, the slave trade, the rise and fall of piracy, and scientific voyaging in the Pacific. Through these many biographies, including those of Anne Bonny, Captain Cook, Queen Elizabeth I, Pocahontas, and Walter Ralegh, early modern globalisation is presented as something through which different people lived in dramatically contrasting ways, but in which everyone played a part. ... Read more

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Explaining global processes through the lives of people who are part of them
"Global Lives" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Ogborn's book interview ran here as cover feature on May 8, 2009. ... Read more

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Georgian Geographies provides an innovative interdisciplinary examination of the geographical nature of culture and society in eighteenth-century Britain and the British world. The book's introduction identifies the key areas of study as the geographical constitution of empire, the Enlightenment and the public sphere. These themes are explored by examining the connections between space, place and landscape in the eighteenth century in relation to the emergent empire in the Caribbean and north-west America, and in Britain itself. The topics considered include landscape painting, London's art world, geography's book, mapping, the geography of erotic fiction, provincial science, and the production of domestic space in the early English novel. It will be an essential contribution to eighteenth-century studies for research and teaching staff, postgraduates and advanced undergraduate students in geography, history, literary studies, the history of art, postcolonial studies and the history of science.
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Why do people living in different areas vote in different ways? Why does this change over time? How do people talk about politics with friends and neighbours, and with what effect? Does the geography of well-being influence the geography of party support? Do parties try to talk to all voters at election time, or are they interested only in the views of a small number of voters living in a small number of seats? Is electoral participation in decline, and how does the geography of the vote affect this? How can a party win a majority of seats in Parliament without a majority of votes in the country? Putting Voters in their Place explores these questions by placing the analysis of electoral behaviour into its geographical context. Using information from the latest elections, including the 2005 General Election, the book shows how both voters and parties are affected by, and seek to influence, both national and local forces. Trends are set in the context of the latest research and scholarship on electoral behaviour. The book also reports on new research findings. ... Read more

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This work asks how primary school children are best helped to understand what is special about being human, in terms of people, place, events, time, beliefs and values. Professional readers are invited to consider their own values against a range of case studies of classroom practice. ... Read more

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This book is the first available survey of English agriculture between 1500 and 1850. Written specifically for students, it combines new material with an analysis of the existing literature. It describes farming in the sixteenth century, analyzes the reasons for improvements in agricultural output and productivity, and examines changes in the agrarian economy and society. Professor Overton argues that the impact of these related changes in productivity and social and economic structure in the century after 1750 amount to an agricultural revolution. ... Read more

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Focused and Substantial Scholarship
Overton aims at answering a set of focused but important questions.Was there an 'Agricultural Revolution', a relatively discrete and identifiable period of marked improvement in agricultural output, in Britain.If so, when?If so, of what did it consist?What were its social corollaries?In the clearly written and very well documented book, Overton provides sensible answers.
Overton points out that Britain escaped a 'Malthusian trap' by boosting agricultural output hugely with increasing labor productivity, providing excess food to feed an expanding population and providing the extra population and food needed to support the conversion to an industrial economy.The key period is the century from 1750 to 1850.A series of technological and managerial innovations made this burst of productivity possible, many if not all introduced into or developed in Britain prior to the crucial century.The period after 1750, however, sees the integration of these methods into a powerfully synergistic whole.
Driving forces for these developments were the expansion of national markets for crops and increasing monetarization of the rural economy.All of these processes were accompanied by and reinforced by marked social changes including the decline of relatively self-sufficient farmers and villages, marked changes in land tenure patterns, and the emergence of a tripartite rural social system of landowners, tenant farmers, and a large body of landless laborers.Many of these processes were in train prior to 1750 but the period after that sees an acceleration of social change.
Overton is focused on Britain but surely this story has general implications.

A work of economic history
This book helps one to understand what your Ag Labs were going through during this period. The "Norfolk Four Course" crop rotation and the enclosure movement are given prominence in explaining how Britain broke out of the Malthusian trap. ... Read more

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These essays trace the evolution of British geography as an academic discipline during the last hundred years, and stress how the study of the world we live in is fundamental to an understanding of its problems and concerns. The principal themes covered in this volume are those of environment, place and space, and the applied geography of map-making and planning. The volume also addresses specific issues such as disease, urbanization, regional viability, and ethics and social problems. This lively and accessible work offers many insights into the minds and practices of today's geographers. ... Read more

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This text offers the first systematic and comprehensive overview of the economic geography of the UK for two decades. With contributions by many of the leading academics in the field, it offers a powerful case for exploring the UK economy from a geographical perspective. Written for students studying the economic development of the UK, the text offers a vibrant, easy-to-understand analysis of the current and future challenges that face the contemporary UK economy.

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Originally published in 1988, this book provides a fascinating comparative review of research in urban historical geography in Britain and West Germany. It draws together a wide range of material on the history of urban development to explore the theoretical and methodological possibilities offered by comparative surveys of contrasting national and regional urban expenses. The chronological focus of the essays ranges in time from the medieval period onwards, and the contributors explore not only the specifically intellectual consequences of their empirical research, but also its policy implications for urban planners and conservationists. Serious extended comparative debate has hitherto been absent from the field of urban historical geography as a whole: this volume sought to reverse that trend, and in so doing to establish a fresh research agenda for an important and expanding discipline. ... Read more

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This is a comprehensive introduction to current processesof urban restructuring, geographies of division and contemporaryconditions within the city. Combines conceptual and empirical analysesfrom leading researchers in the field. ... Read more

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This book traces the foundations of modern British geography and is based upon the first-hand recollections of some of those active in the discipline between the wars and after. The contributors show how geography evolved from fragile institutional foundations in British universities, and how from the outset the subject generated both controversy and considerable diversity of opinion. The volume discusses not only the growth of geography as a specific academic discipline, but also the relationship between geography and national planning that played such an important role in post-war reconstruction. ... Read more