From Above

'Being above - using aircraft to loiter within the atmosphere or on the edge of space - has long been recognised as a definitive means of gaining military and strategic advantage over those bound by the earth's surface. The last century has witnessed countless episodes of annihilation and killing by states and militaries from up in the sky. But how can we approach the deep connections between verticality, violence and war? From Above - a dazzling and definitive collection - provides the answers. Bringing together the very best thinkers from Geography, Cultural Studies, Art Theory and Political Science, the result is an extraordinary and searing book. Here, for the first time, is a volume which fully excavates how targeting and killing from above was invented, generalised and rendered completely normal in the past century and a half. A must-read for anyone concerned with the nature of contemporary political violence.' -- Stephen Graham, Professor of Cities and Society, School of Architecture, Planning and landscape, Newcastle University 'Packed with historical knowledge and theoretical insights, this collection opens our eyes to the metaphors and technologies embedded in the most ordinary expressions such as above, below, depth, flight, earth, and sky. In chapter after chapter, the aerial view presents itself not only as a militaristic space and a geopolitical theatre but also - and above all - as a conceptual event in modernity.' -- Rey Chow, author of Entanglements, or Transmedial Thinking about Capture 'From Above Is a remarkable collection of essays on an important and neglected topic. The chapters range across time and space, covering a great deal of terrain and building up a multi-layered account of empirical and historical detail. The collection as a whole develops a new theoretical vocabulary to thinking about the politics and geographies of the vertical.' -- Stuart Elden, Professor of Political Theory and Geography, University of Warwick 'Bombings and assassinations meet with surveys and cartography in this collection of critically engaged essays on the combined force of aerial knowledge and aerial power. Offering a much-needed counter to the official line on air power, the volume spells out the extent to which reconnaissance and violence operate in tandem - from above.' -- Mark Neocleous, Professor of the Critique of Political Economy, Politics and History

Peter Adey is Reader in Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London and author of Mobility (2009) and Aerial Life (2010). Mark Whitehead is Reader at the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, and author of, inter alia, State, Science and the Skies: Governmentalities of the British Atmosphere (2009). Alison Williams is Lecturer in Human Geography at the school of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University and the author of numerous articles on 'vertical geopolitics'.