Longitude and Empire

But it is a mark of the achievement of this wide-ranging book that it prompts such fundamental questions and asks us to look again not just at Cook and his voyages, but also at the character of the culture which produced the grid-like view of the world of which Cook, the cartographer par excellence, was the great exponent. John Gascoigne, Journal of Pacific History, Fall 2005

Richardson gives a clear and readable narrative about the importance of the concept of space and its relationship to people in Cook’s narratives and the influence this concept had on British perceptions of the world. The relationship between theory-driven and empirically-motivated political thought in the aftermath of Cook’s voyages is particularly clear and interesting. Margaret Small, Journal for Maritime Research

Employing only minimal jargon and offering clear ... explanations, Richardson analyses the text of Cook’s Voyages and interprets their impact upon the European mind and political order in a manner that might profitably be emulated by cultural theorists and literary deconstructionists ... Anthropologists such as Anne Salmond and Greg Dening have provided studies of early contacts between Pacific Natives and European largely from the former’s point of view. Richardson’s thought-provoking study reverses the lens to show the impact upon European sensibilities and growing conception of the world as a unified and precisely definable whole. Merrill Distad, University of Alberta, Bulletin of Pacific Affairs, no. 14

A key contribution of this book is a proper examination of the ways in which Cook’s geographical thinking came to shape how we think historically and ethnographically about the whole world. Katrina Schlunke, University of Techonology Sydney, Australian Historical Studies, No. 128

Longitude and Empire is cogently and quite brilliantly organized. In summarizing how Cook organized his narratives, Brian Richardson shows how our world view has been shaped by Cook’s – a fascinating and well-illustrated argument. Cook and his narratives are the template for most if not all who followed, and as such, this critical assessment of Cook and the literature has importance beyond the man and his own explorations – this is an essential book for anyone interested in the general subject of Enlightenment exploration – and perhaps for all exploration that follows. James Delgado, Director, Vancouver Maritime Museum