Terrestrial Lessons: The Conquest of the World as Globe
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.40 (991 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 022647657X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 416 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-10-10 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Drawing on a wide array of archival sources, she delineates its transformation from a thing of distinction possessed by elite men into that mass-produced commodity used in classrooms worldwide—the humble school globe. Why and how do debates about the form and disposition of our Earth shape enlightened subjectivity and secular worldliness in colonial modernity? Sumathi Ramaswamy explores this question for British India with the aid of the terrestrial globe, which since the sixteenth century has circulated as a worldly symbol, a scientific instrument, and not least an educational tool for inculcating planetary consciousness. In Terrestrial Lessons, Ramaswamy provides the first in-depth analysis of the globe’s history in and impact on the Indian subcontinent during the colonial era and its aftermath. Traversing the length and breadth of British India, Terrestrial Lessons is an unconventional history of this master object of pedagogical modernity that will fascinate historians of cartography, science, and Asia
In her astute and nuanced analysis the ‘Modern Earth’ gains a new density of meaning and in ‘cartographic evangelism’ she develops a concept of rare distinction and wide applicability. “Global history takes on a whole new meaning in Ramaswamy’s assiduously researched and elegantly delivered account of terrestrial globes, planetary consciousness, and pedagogic modernity. Terrestrial Lessons is an intellectual tour de force from which we can all learn.”. Ranging widely across India and its colonial history, a