Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

Britain at bay, 1938-1941 : the epic story of the Second World War /Alan Allport. In the bleak first half of the Second World War, Britain stood alone against the Axis forces. Isolated and outmanoeuvred, it seemed as though she might fall at any moment. Only an extraordinary effort of courage - by ordinary men and women - held the line. The Second World War is the defining experience of modern British history, a new Iliad for our own times. But, as Alan Allport reveals in this, the first part of a major new two-volume history, the real story was often very different from the myth that followed it. From the subtle moral calculus of appeasement to the febrile dusts of the Western Desert, Allport interrogates every aspect of the conflict - and exposes its echoes in our own age. Challenging orthodoxy and casting fresh light on famous events from Dunkirk to the Blitz, this is the real story of a clash between civilisations that remade the world in its image."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available.

RMSP/RML scrapbook : a compendium of information and pictures covering the history of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and Royal Mail Lines, Limited, from 1839 to the 1970s /compiled by Stuart Nicol. "This collection of material about the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and Royal Mail Lines, Limited comprises a wide range of items, both written and graphic, which are no longer generally available to the public. Much of it, in fact, was never freely available to the general public. The Scrapbook is not intended to be a history of Royal Mail, but provides information and pictures which include previously published material. This includes much of the text of The Royal Mail War Book 1914-18 (by H W Leslie), and the whole of Royal Mail 1839-1939 and Eight Bells (both by T A Bushell), all of which are now very rare. A fourth book, A Link of Empire, covering the years 1839 to 1909, was privately published and was never freely available, and so a large portion of its contents are reproduced in the Scrapbook. .... In addition to written information there are documents which display photographs and other illustrations, postcards and printed matter, providing by far the most comprehensive coverage of Company documentation ever compiled."--P. i. 2008. • CD-ROM • 1 copy available. 347.792ROYALMAIL

Boat trains : the English Channel and ocean liner specials : history, development and operation /Martyn Pring. "In many ways this title featuring the evolution of cross-channel boat trains and the many dedicated services responsible for moving international passengers to and from trans-Atlantic steamers, is an extension of luxury railway travel. But that's not the full story as it encapsulates more than 125 years of independent and organised tourism development. At the end of the nineteenth century, faster and more stable twin-screw vessels replaced cross-channel paddlers resulting in a significant expansion in the numbers of day excursionists and short-stay visitors heading to Belgium, France and the Channel Islands. Continental Europe, as it had done since the end of the Napoleonic Wars beckoned, introducing ideas of modern-day mass tourism. Numerous liners bestriding the globe were British domiciled. Major ports became hives of commercial activity involving moving freight and mail, as well as transporting all manner of travellers. Not only was there intense competition for passenger traffic between the Old and New World and Britain's imperial interests, greater numbers of well-heeled tourists headed off to warmer winter climes, and also experimented with the novel idea of using ocean steamers as hotels to visit an array of diverse destinations. Cruise tourism and the itinerary had arrived as 'Ocean Special' boat trains became essential components of railway and port procedures. Whilst some railway operations were dedicated to emigrant traffic, continental and ocean liner boat trains were also synonymous with the most glamorous travel services ever choreographed by shipping lines and railway companies working closely in tandem. This well illustrated book explores the many functions of boat train travel."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 388.4/20941

Women on the front line : British servicewomen's path to combat /Kathleen Sherit. "Women on the Front Line explains how women went from unacknowledged participation in combat in the Second World War to the opening of all combat roles by 2018. It explores why regular service was offered after the war; the struggle to establish careers; the first crack in the non-combatant principle - the late 1970s decision to train servicewomen in the use of small arms; why the Royal Navy was the first to open its main combat role (seagoing in warships) to women in 1990; and the consequences for the RAF and the Army. The non-combatant principle governed the number of women that could be recruited, roles they could be trained for, postings, promotion chances, pay and pensions. Being non-combatant also affected women's status in the eyes of servicemen as they could not fulfil the complete range of duties that fell to men. But women's careers were not only blighted by the principle that they were non-combatants. The second major obstacle was the treatment of married women and those who became pregnant. This book brings out the growing gulf between employment rights and armed forces' policies. The armed forces' assertion that they had a right to be different from society began to crumble. This made a crucial difference to servicewomen who acquired the opportunity to continue with their careers if they chose. Confronting policies on women's employment led to recognition of wider issues such as treatment of ethnic minorities, bullying and sexuality."-- 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.00820941

A kick in the belly : women, slavery and resistance /Stella Dadzie. "Enslaved West Indian women had few opportunities to record their stories for posterity. Yet from their dusty footprints and the umpteen small clues they left for us to unravel, there's no question that they earned their place in history. Pick any Caribbean island and you'll find race, skin colour and rank interacting with gender in a unique and often volatile way. In A Kick in the Belly, Stella Dadzie follows the evidence, and finds women played a distinctly female role in the development of a culture of slave resistance a role that was not just central, but downright dynamic. From the coffle-line to the Great House, enslaved women found ways of fighting back that beggar belief. Whether responding to the horrendous conditions of plantation life, the sadistic vagaries of their captors or the peculiar burdens of their sex, their collective sanity relied on a highly subversive adaptation of the values and cultures they smuggled with them naked from different parts of Africa. By sustaining or adapting remembered cultural practices, they ensured that the lives of chattel slaves retained both meaning and purpose. A Kick in the Belly makes clear that their subtle acts of insubordination and their conscious acts of rebellion came to undermine the very fabric and survival of West Indian slavery."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 306.36209729

Catastrophe at Spithead : the sinking of the Royal George. "In one of the most sensational and perplexing incidents in naval history, Rear Admiral Richard Kempenfelt, a much-voyaged veteran and outstanding officer, drowned along with more than 800 crew and many civilian visitors, male and female, on a calm summer's morning and in a familiar anchorage. This new work examines that tragedy - the sudden capsizing at Spithead on 29 August 1782 of the mighty flagship HMS Royal George. This is the first comprehensive account of the calamity and is based on a wide variety of contemporary sources, including reports by survivors and eyewitnesses. It discusses such issues as how and why she sank; on whom, if anyone, the blame should fall; the number and nature of the casualties; and the disaster's impact on the nation's psyche, including its treatment in literature. In its pages are encountered, by name and fate, some of the hitherto anonymous seamen who were on the ship and who lived to become the last remaining survivors; these included the only woman to be picked up alive, out of perhaps 300 who were on board. As well as describing the sinking, the book provides information never before uncovered on the life and career of Kempenfelt, whose flagship Royal George was, ranging from his hitherto unknown maternal ancestry (through which it is shown that he was related to his great contemporary, Admiral Rodney) to accounts of his whereabouts when the ship sank. These call into question the now-set-in-stone scenario in William Cowper's famous poem, which depicts Kempenfelt writing in his cabin when she foundered. Although the Royal George has receded from national memory in recent years, the tragedy was for a long time front and centre in representations of British naval culture, and this absorbing account - part detective story, part historical narrative - will bring to a new audience an extraordinary tale from the heyday of Britain's naval power."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 656.61.085.3ROYAL GEORGE:094

Heroes of the RNLI : the storm warriors /Martyn Beardsley. "Whenever vessels have foundered off the coasts of Britain, there have always been those willing to give their all to save those in peril. But in 1823, Sir William Hillary decided that this admirable but impromptu approach was not enough. He believed that many more lives could be saved by the establishment of a national, organised rescue service. His idea was realised the following year. From the days of oar-powered open boats to modern high speed, hi-tech vessels, rescuers have battled storms and unimaginable conditions, risking - and sometimes forfeiting - their own lives in efforts to save others. The most outstanding of these operations led to the awarding of gold medals for gallantry, the RNLI version of the Victoria Cross. Above all, these are human stories. Using information gleaned from archives, contemporary newspaper accounts and genealogical records, this book looks not just at the details of the rescues, but into the people behind them."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 627.772:061.236

The year 1000 : when explorers connected the world-- and globalization began /Valerie Hansen. "When did globalization begin? Most observers have settled on 1492, the year Columbus discovered America. But as celebrated Yale professor Valerie Hansen shows, it was the year 1000, when for the first time new trade routes linked the entire globe, so an object could in theory circumnavigate the world. This was the 'big bang' of globalization, which ushered in a new era of exploration and trade, and which paved the way for Europeans to dominate after Columbus reached America. Drawing on a wide range of new historical sources and cutting-edge archaeology, Hansen shows, for example, that the Maya began to trade with the native peoples of modern New Mexico from traces of theobromine - the chemical signature of chocolate - and that frozen textiles found in Greenland contain hairs from animals that could only have come from North America. Moreover, Hansen turns accepted wisdom on its head, revealing not only that globalization began much earlier than previously thought, but also that the world's first anti-globalization riots did too, in cities such as Cairo, Constantinople, and Guangzhou. Introducing players from Europe, the Islamic world, Asia, the Indian Ocean maritime world, the Pacific and the Mayan world who were connecting the major landmasses for the first time, this compelling revisionist argument shows how these encounters set the stage for the globalization that would dominate the world for centuries to come."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 909.1

Contested and dangerous seas : North Atlantic fishermen, their wives, unions, and the politics of exclusion /Colin J. Davis. "Deep-sea fishing has always been a hazardous occupation, with crews facing gale-force winds, huge waves and swells, and unrelenting rain and snow. For those New England and British fishermen whose voyages took them hundreds of miles from the coastline, life was punctuated by strenuous work, grave danger, and frequent fear. Unsurprisingly, every fishing port across the world has memorials to those lost at sea. During the 1960s and 1970s, these seafaring workers experienced new hardships. As modern fleets from many nations intensified their hunt for fish, they found themselves in increasing competition for disappearing prey. Colin J. Davis details the unfolding drama as New England and British fishermen and their wives, partners, and families reacted to this competition. Rather than acting as bystanders to these crises, the men and women chronicled in Contested and Dangerous Seas became fierce advocates for the health of the Atlantic Ocean fisheries and for their families' livelihoods."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 799.1609163

The wretched of the earth / Frantz Fanon. "A distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history. Fanon's masterwork is a classic alongside Edward Said's Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and it is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers. The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in effecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of postindependence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement of the masses by the elites on the one hand, and intertribal and interfaith animosities on the other. Fanon's analysis, a veritable handbook of social reorganization for leaders of emerging nations, has been reflected all too clearly in the corruption and violence that has plagued present-day Africa. The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on civil rights, anticolonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world."--Provided by the publisher. [2020]. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 965

England's islands in a sea of troubles / David Cressy. "England's Islands in a Sea of Troubles examines the jurisdictional disputes and cultural complexities in England's relationship with its island fringe from Tudor times to the eighteenth century, and traces island privileges and anomalies to the present. It tells a dramatic story of sieges and battles, pirates and shipwrecks, prisoners and prophets, as kings and commoners negotiated the political, military, religious, and administrative demands of the early modern state. The Channel Islands, the Isle of Wight, the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Man, Lundy, Holy Island and others emerge as important offshore outposts that long remained strange, separate, and perversely independent. England's islands were difficult to govern, and were prone to neglect, yet their strategic value far outweighed their size. Though vulnerable to foreign threats, their harbours and castles served as forward bases of English power. In civil war they were divided and contested, fought over and occupied. Jersey and the Isles of Scilly served as refuges for royalists on the run. Charles I was held on the Isle of Wight. External authority was sometimes light of touch, as English governments used the islands as fortresses, commercial assets, and political prisons. London was often puzzled by the linguistic differences, tangled histories, and special claims of island communities. Though increasingly integrated within the realm, the islands maintained challenging peculiarities and distinctive characteristics. Drawing on a wide range of sources, and the insights of maritime, military, and legal scholarship, this is an original contribution to social, cultural, and constitutional history."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 914.2

Black Spartacus : the epic life of Toussaint Louverture /Sudhir Hazareesingh. "The Haitian Revolution began in the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue with a slave revolt in August 1791, and culminated a dozen years later in the proclamation of the world's first independent black state. After the abolition of slavery in 1793, Toussaint Louverture, himself a former slave, became the leader of the colony's black population, the commander of its republican army and eventually its governor. During the course of his extraordinary life he confronted some of the dominant forces of his age - slavery, settler colonialism, imperialism and racial hierarchy. Treacherously seized by Napoleon's invading army in 1802, this charismatic figure ended his days, in Wordsworth's phrase, 'the most unhappy man of men', imprisoned in a fortress in France. Black Spartacus draws on a wealth of archival material, much of it overlooked by previous biographers, to follow every step of Louverture's singular journey, from his triumphs against French, Spanish and British troops to his skilful regional diplomacy, his Machiavellian dealings with successive French colonial administrators and his bold promulgation of an autonomous Constitution. Sudhir Hazareesingh shows that Louverture developed his unique vision and leadership not solely in response to imported Enlightenment ideals and revolutionary events in Europe and the Americas, but through a hybrid heritage of fraternal slave organisations, Caribbean mysticism and African political traditions. Above all, Hazareesingh retrieves Louverture's rousing voice and force of personality, making this the most engaging, as well as the most complete, biography to date." --Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 970.980

The shipbuilding industry : a guide to historical records /by L. A. Ritchie. 1992. • BOOK • 6 copies available. 930.25

China station : the British military in the Middle Kingdom 1839-1997 /Mark Felton. "The Author, who lives in Shanghai, sets out to demonstrate that the British military has been at the forefront of many of the great changes that have swept China over the last two centuries. He devotes chapters to the various wars, military adventures and rebellions that regularly punctuated Sino#British relationships since the 1st Opium War 1839-1842. This classic example of Imperial intervention saw the establishment of Hong Kong and Shanghai as key trading centres. The Second Opium War and the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions saw the advancement of British influence despite determined but unsuccessful efforts by the Chinese to loosen the grip of Western domination. The Royal Navys might ensured that, by gunboat diplomacy, trading rights and new posts were established and great fortunes made. But in the 1940s the British grossly underestimated Japanese military might and intentions with disastrous results. After the Second World War the British returned to find that the Americans had supplanted them. The Communists victory in the Civil War sealed British and Western fates and, while Hong Kong remained under British control until 1997, the end of British rule was almost inevitable. But the handover was a masterly piece of pragmatic capitalism and the former Colony remains an economic powerhouse with strong British influence."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 951.033

Mariners' memorabilia : a guide to the china of British shipping companies of the 19th and 20th centuries, volume 4 /Peter Laister. "This book, the last in a series of four volumes, deals mostly with British companies and a miscellaneous selection of foreign deep sea companies. Together with three earlier volumes, it is an attempt to illustrate examples of china used on board British merchant ships and covers the period from the beginning of the 19th century, through to the end of the 20th century. It also gives brief historical details of the companies themselves and the trades in which they were involved. Information about identifying patterns of china and details of the manufacturers are included. It also covers the difficulty of identification of china that is only marked with a monogram, or a house flag. A total of 59 companies are dealt with individually in the volume and, in total, 230 companies are mentioned in the comprehensive index. These companies were so important to the lifeblood of the United Kingdom and traded to all parts of the world. Sadly, with one or two rare exceptions, they now remain only in memory. Whilst the name 'British' forms part of the title, the book also includes shipping companies that were owned in other parts of the world, these companies being of great importance to, what used to be the British Empire. Both the author and his wife are ex seafarers and met on the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company's vessel, STIRLING CASTLE, on the weekly mail service from Southampton to Cape Town in the 1950s, when he was a Deck Officer and she, a Children's Hostess."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • FOLIO • 1 copy available.

Charles E. Callwell and the British way in warfare / Daniel Whittingham. "Daniel Whittingham presents the first full-length study of one of Britain's most important military thinkers, Major-General Sir Charles E. Callwell (1859-1928). It tells the story of his life, which included service in military intelligence, the South African War, and on the General Staff before and during the First World War. It also presents the first comprehensive analysis of his writing: from his well-known books Small Wars (1896) and Military Operations and Maritime Preponderance (1905), to a host of other books and articles that are presented here for the first time. Through a study of Callwell's life and works, this book offers a new perspective on the nature and study of military history, the character of British strategy, and on the army to which he belonged."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.4/2092

Sino-French trade at Canton, 1698-1842 / Susan E. Schopp. "Sino-French Trade at Canton, 1698-1842 presents a rare and lively view of the French experience at Canton, and calls for a reappraisal of France's role in that trade. France was one of the two most important Western powers in the eighteenth century, and was home to one of the three major European East India companies. Yet the nation is woefully underrepresented in Canton trade scholarship. Susan E. Schopp rescues the French from the sidelines, showing that they exerted a presence that, though closely watched by their rivals, is today largely unrecognized. Their contributions were diverse, ranging from finding new sea routes to inspiring the renovation of hong faðcades. Consequently, to ignore the French, or to dismiss them as simply "also-rans," results in a skewed perception of the Canton system. Schopp also demonstrates that while the most distinctive aspect of the French model of company trade was the dominant role of the state -- indeed, the French East India Company has been memorably described as a "Versailles of trade" -- this did not rule out a place for legitimate, and sometimes surprising, participation by the private sector. On the contrary: France's commercial relations with China were inaugurated by private traders, and the popularity of the Canton trade spurred the eventual demise of the company model. Backed up by extensive archival work, Schopp's work demonstrates a remarkable understanding of the Sino-European trade, and her book reveals an unparalleled passion for the role of seamanship in history."--Provided by the publisher. [2020] • BOOK • 1 copy available. 382.094405109033

British traders in the East Indies, 1770-1820 : 'at home in the Eastern Seas' /W. G. Miller. "This book provides an in-depth analysis of the British private traders who engaged in the intra-Asian trade, known to contemporaries as the "country trade", between 1770 and 1820, providing much detail on who the traders were, how they conducted their operations, and how they interacted with indigenous societies in a complex and very volatile region. It examines their relations with East India Company, and their moves beyond the Company's orbit to open up independently new spheres of British commercial, political, and imperial influence. It discusses their social and political interaction with Malays, their good understanding of local societies, their use of the Malay language, their adoption of local practices and procedures, and their gathering of many forms of useful knowledge, all of which underpinned the growth in commercial activity and made the traders indispensable to East India Company officials. It explores their often fractious rivalry with the Dutch, and analyses the decline of the country trade following the establishment of Singapore in 1819. Throughout, the book provides many case studies of individual traders."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 382.0941

The many faces of slavery : new perspectives on slave ownership and experiences in the Americas /edited by Lawrence Aje and Catherine Armstrong. "While the plantation accounts for 90 per cent of slave ownership and experience in the Americas, its centrality to the common conceptions of slavery has arguably led to an oversimplified understanding of its multifarious forms and complex dynamics in the region. The Many Faces of Slavery explores non-traditional forms of slavery that existed outside the plantation system to illustrate the pluralities of slave ownership and experiences in the Americas, from the 17th to the 19th century. Through a wide range of innovative and multi-disciplined approaches, the book's chapters explore the existence of urban slavery, slave self-hiring, quasi-free or nominal slaves, domestic slave concubines, slave vendors, slave soldiers and sailors, slave preachers, slave overseers, and many other types of societies with slaves. Moreover, it documents unconventional forms of slave ownership like slave-holding by poor whites, women, free blacks, Native Americans, Jewish Americans, corporations and the state. The Many Faces of Slavery broadens our traditional conception of slavery by complicating our understanding of slave experience and ownership in slavery-practising societies throughout Atlantic history."--Provided by publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.3/620973

Wild east : the British in Japan 1854-1868 /Joshua Provan. "For over two centuries, Japan had been hidden behind a veil of seclusion. This changed when Commodore Perry arrived in 1853. Britain was fast to get in on the action; however, their sudden appearance had accelerated the pace of political change in Japan. The newcomers found themselves increasingly out of their depth in a power struggle that they did not understand. The shogun and emperor were at each other's throats and factions were jockeying for position. Britain's first diplomats found themselves the targets of assassins and to their confusion discovered that the emperor had no legislative power and the shogun's word was no longer law. Yet with the lessons of the opium wars still in recent memory, a slew of British soldiers, ambassadors, interpreters and adventurers attempted to protect imperial interests in Japan without causing outright war. This is the story of the rocky beginning of Anglo-Japanese relations, a story of the 'Wild East', full of political schemes, gunboat diplomacy, assassins and samurai, set in the dying days of the Edo period and the twilight of the last shogun."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 327.5204109/034

E-books in libraries : a practical guide /edited by Kate Price and Virginia Havergal. "Despite the fact that e-books have been in existence for decades in various guises and added to library collections for several years now, there has been a noticeable lack of published manuals on the subject. This is doubtless owing to the rapidly evolving nature of the market. There is now a plethora of different types of digital object that may be termed 'e-books' and a bewildering number of business and access models to match. Moreover the pace of change shows no sign of abating, but there is an increasing amount of popular interest in e-books, and what is needed is practical information to assist library and information professionals managing collections of e-books and doing their best to inform their users right now. This timely book, the first of its kind to provide a practical appraisal of e-books, aims to fill that need by addressing the key questions: Where do e-books come from and what are the key business models that support them? What needs to change before e-books become universally and easily used? What will the e-book landscape look like in ten years' time? How can you be sure you are building a good collection that your users can access easily? And what about money and budgets?"--Provided by publisher. 2011. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 027:004

Inglorious empire : What the British did to India /Shashi Tharoor. "In the eighteenth century, India's share of the world economy was as large as Europe's. By 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold. Beyond conquest and deception, the Empire blew rebels from cannon, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalised racism, and caused millions to die from starvation. British imperialism justified itself as enlightened despotism for the benefit of the governed, but Shashi Tharoor takes on and demolishes this position, demonstrating how every supposed imperial 'gift' - from the railways to the rule of law - was designed in Britain's interests alone. He goes on to show how Britain's Industrial Revolution was founded on India's deindustrialisation, and the destruction of its textile industry. In this bold and incisive reassessment of colonialism, Tharoor exposes to devastating effect the inglorious reality of Britain?s stained Indian legacy."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 325.46(42:540)

Naval hydrography, charismatic bureaucracy, and the British military state, 1825-1855 / Megan Barford "This thesis is an investigation into writing and record keeping practices of those in and around the Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty in the earlier-nineteenth century. It looks at the Hydrographic Office in the context of early-Victorian adminsitrative growth and the print culture of the Royal Navy. In doing so it draws on media-theoretic approaches to paperwork and archives which insist on treating them as topics for invesitigation, and suggests that these can be used to examine fundemental issues of the establishment and effacement of self, and group, and profession, and public as created through a sophisticated bureaucratic system. Hydrographic surveyors were a group of naval officers who role stressed record keeping in a peculiarly acute way, but this was underwritten by an intensive concern in this period about both record keeping and life writing. In particular this thesis focus on the bureaucratic practices at the Admiralty in London and on survey ships as the operated in regions of particular colonial, commercial or strategic importance to the British. It goes on to examine how the work of hydrography was defined and promoted in a popular magazine, explores a particular survery carried out on the St Lawrence River, and describes the way in which the circulation of instruments was managed within a system that relied on personal relationships between those involved. In finally discussing an episode when the system of correspondence organised by the office was placed under the greatest strain, the thesis explores ideas of institutional memory and absolution. As such, the work is a contribution to literature on paperwork, professionalism, and the early-Victorian state."--Provided by the author. 2016 • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 528.47

Zero degrees : geographies of the Prime Meridian /Charles W.J. Withers. "Space and time on earth are regulated by the Prime Meridian, 0À, which is, by convention, based at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. But the meridian's location in southeast London is not a simple legacy of Britain's imperial past. Before the nineteenth century, more than twenty-five different prime meridians were in use around the world, including Paris, Beijing, Greenwich, Washington, and the location traditional in Europe since Ptolemy, the Canary Islands. Charles Withers explains how the choice of Greenwich to mark 0À longitude solved complex problems of global measurement that had engaged geographers, astronomers, and mariners since ancient times. Withers guides readers through the navigation and astronomy associated with diverse meridians and explains the problems that these cartographic lines both solved and created. He shows that as science and commerce became more global and as railway and telegraph networks tied the world closer together, the multiplicity of prime meridians led to ever greater confusion in the coordination of time and the geographical division of space. After a series of international scientific meetings, notably the 1884 International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, Greenwich emerged as the most pragmatic choice for a global prime meridian, though not unanimously or without acrimony. Even after 1884, other prime meridians remained in use for decades. As Zero Degrees shows, geographies of the prime meridian are a testament to the power of maps, the challenges of accurate measurement on a global scale, and the role of scientific authority in creating the modern world."--Provided by publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 529.771

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