Longitude and empire : how Captain Cook's voyages changed the world /Brian W. Richardson.

"Before Captain Cook's three voyages, to Europeans the globe was uncertain and dangerous: after, it was comprehensible and ordered. Written as a conceptual field guide to the voyages, Longitude and Empire offers a significant rereading of both the expeditions and modern political philosophy. More than any other work, printed accounts of the voyages marked the shift from early modern to modern ways of looking at the world. The globe was no longer understood to be divided between Europeans and savages but populated instead by an almost overwhelming variety of national identities."--BOOK JACKET.