Reading the World: British Practices of Natural History, 1760-1820

Edwin Rose’s fascinating study shows how the great natural history collections of the early British empire were transformed into printed information. With exciting new insights into paper technologies, Reading the World links book production with ideas about plant and animal classification and reveals the ways notable natural history publications fostered imperial agendas, built global networks of naturalists, and defined English gentlemen. Highly recommended. -- Janet Browne, Harvard University Reading the World is a richly detailed exploration of the interplay between natural history and book culture in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Rose reveals how ‘paper technologies’—from collection slips to natural history books—transformed amassing, classifying, and the global knowledge networks throughout the British empire. This groundbreaking work masterfully offers us a new perspective of how print culture and innovative collecting practices reshaped scientific authority and knowledge production in the making of the modern world. -- Gordon McOuat, University of King’s College Rose’s work showcases admirable and innovative archival research drawn together cleverly into an exposition of the paper technologies idea in practice. His exposition of all the marginalia, specimens, and botanical correspondences that surrounded these books meant for genteel consumption is important reading for anyone with an interest in natural history publishing in the period. * H-Net *