Exploring European Frontiers: British Travellers in the Age of Enlightenment [Hardcover]

Brian Dolan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 2000

The explorations of eighteenth-century British travelers to the "European frontiers" were often geared to define the cultural, political and historical boundaries of "European civilization." In an age when political revolutions shocked nations into reassessing what separated the civilized from the barbaric, how did literary travelers contemplate the characteristics of their continental neighbors? Focusing on the writings of British travelers, we see how a new view of Europe was created, one that attempted to define'modern Europe against a yet unenlightened Europe.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An exciting addition to that space on the scholar's bookshelf between Edward Said's Orientalism and Mary Louise Pratt's Imperial Eyes. It focuses on the literature of travel, but by targeting areas on the margins of Europe visited at the turn of the nineteenth century by English travellers - notably, the Far North and the Middle East - it unpicks easy assumptions about 'West' and 'East' and presents a more complicated, yet intellectually more sophisticated and more satisfying account of cultural encounter in a key stage in the formation of concepts of national identity and ethnographic science.' - Colin Jones, Department of History, University of Warwick 'A thoughtful and far-reaching account that uses travel to throw fresh light on eighteenth-century thought. Aside from the inherent importance of the subject this is a great pleasure to read.' - Jeremy Black, Professor of History, University of Exeter Through the writings of Clarke and other travellers, Dolan provides a fascinating picture of how peoples on the margins of Europe were depicted and defined...The book is particularly successful in explicating intellectual history of different kinds and relating it to the travel reports. The polymath traveller of the eighteenth century had interests ranging from botany to political economy. To make all these comprehensible to the reader, as Dolan has, is no small achievement.' - Katherine Edgar, The Times Literary Supplement --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Brian Dolan is Research Lecturer at the University of East Anglia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 246 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (May 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312230516
• ISBN-13: 978-0312230517
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,123,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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