Historical Geography and Geosciences – serie

This edited volume discusses scientific and technological aspects of the history of the oil and gas industry in national and international contexts.

This book investigates the role of the National Petroleum Council (CNP) and especially of Petrobras in the construction and shaping of courses in Geosciences, as part of the historical process of the search for and exploration of oil, which began in Brazil in 1864 and ended in 1968 with the discovery of the first offshore well.The book explores the history of the discovery of oil in Brazil together with the historical development of oil research and geosciences in Brazil. It also elucidates significant events and developments which occurred between 1864 and 1968 such as the foundation of the Ouro Preto Mining School, the foundation of the CNP and Petrobras and other scientific societies and universities and their contributions to the formation and constitution of geosciences in Brazil. This book also discusses the massive investments by CNP and Petrobras in technical and scientific research for oil exploration in the Brazilian territory.This unique book appeals to scientists,students and professionals in geosciences, history and related fields.

This book investigates the role of the National Petroleum Council (CNP) and especially of Petrobras in the construction and shaping of courses in Geosciences, as part of the historical process of the search for and exploration of oil, which began in Brazil in 1864 and ended in 1968 with the discovery of the first offshore well.The book explores the history of the discovery of oil in Brazil together with the historical development of oil research and geosciences in Brazil. It also elucidates significant events and developments which occurred between 1864 and 1968 such as the foundation of the Ouro Preto Mining School, the foundation of the CNP and Petrobras and other scientific societies and universities and their contributions to the formation and constitution of geosciences in Brazil. This book also discusses the massive investments by CNP and Petrobras in technical and scientific research for oil exploration in the Brazilian territory.This unique book appeals to scientists,students and professionals in geosciences, history and related fields.

This monograph explores traditional farming communities in French-speaking areas of the western Alps for the period 1500-1914 and how they endured in such an environment despite the many problems and risks which it posed for their subsistence and welfare. Using an extensive amount of archival material drawn from the relevant regional archives, the book presents a great deal of fresh data. Its central theme is how such communities responded to the opportunities and challenges presented by the highly variegated environment of their setting. The view taken is that their strategies of exploitation stressed diversity and flexibility, mapping the highly varied ecologies and resource opportunities of their setting into these strategies by spreading livelihood and risk as widely as possible. This interpretative framework is developed across all the book's themes: landholding, arable and livestock sectors, use of the commons and, finally, how communities coped with climate-based risks.The book appeals to geographers, historians, environmental scientists and everyone interested in traditional farming communities and their long-term challenges.

This monograph explores traditional farming communities in French-speaking areas of the western Alps for the period 1500-1914 and how they endured in such an environment despite the many problems and risks which it posed for their subsistence and welfare.

This book illustrates how literature, history and geographical analysis complement and enrich each other’s disciplinary endeavors. The Hun-Lenox Globe, constructed in 1510, contains the Latin phrase 'Hic sunt dracones' ('Here be dragons'), warning sailors of the dangers of drifting into uncharted waters. Nearly half a millennium earlier, the practice of ‘earth-writing’ (geographia) emerged from the cloisters of the great library of Alexandria, as a discipline blending the twin pursuits of Strabo’s poetic impression of places, and Herodotus’ chronicles of events and cultures. Eratosthenes, a librarian at Alexandria, and the mathematician Ptolemy employed geometry as another language with which to pursue ‘earth-writing’. From this ancient, East Mediterranean fount, the streams of literary perception, historical record and geographical analysis (phenomenological and Euclidean) found confluence. The aim of this collection is to recover such means and seek the fount of such rich waters, by exploring relations between historical geography, geographic information science (GIS) / geoscience, and textual analysis. The book discusses and illustrates current case studies, trends and discourses in European, American and Asian spheres, where historical geography is practiced in concert with human and physical applications of GIS (and the broader geosciences) and the analysis of text - broadly conceived as archival, literary, historical, cultural, climatic, scientific, digital, cinematic and media. Time as a multi-scaled concept (again, broadly conceived) is the pivot around which the interdisciplinary contributions to this volume revolve.  In The Landscape of Time (2002) the historian John Lewis Gaddis posits: “What if we were to think of history as a kind of mapping?” He links the ancient practice of mapmaking with the three-part conception of time (past, present, and future). Gaddis presents the practices of cartography and historical narrative as attempts to manage infinitely complex subjects by imposing abstract grids to frame the phenomena being examined— longitude and latitude to frame landscapes and, occidental and oriental temporal scales to frame timescapes. Gaddis contends that if the past is a landscape and history is the way we represent it, then it follows that pattern recognition constitutes a primary form of human perception, one that can be parsed empirically, statistically and phenomenologically. In turn, this volume reasons that literary, historical, cartographical, scientific, mathematical, and counterfactual narratives create their own spatio-temporal frames of reference. Confluences between the poetic and the positivistic; the empirical and the impressionistic; the epic and the episodic; and the chronologic and the chorologic, can be identified and studied by integrating practices in historical geography, GIScience / geoscience and textual analysis. As a result, new perceptions and insights, facilitating further avenues of scholarship into uncharted waters emerge. The various ways in which geographical, historical and textual perspectives are hermeneutically woven together in this volume illuminates the different methods with which to explore terrae incognitaes of knowledge beyond the shores of their own separate disciplinary islands.

This book illustrates how literature, history and geographical analysis complement and enrich each other’s disciplinary endeavors. The Hun-Lenox Globe, constructed in 1510, contains the Latin phrase 'Hic sunt dracones' ('Here be dragons'), warning sailors of the dangers of drifting into uncharted waters. Nearly half a millennium earlier, the practice of ‘earth-writing’ (geographia) emerged from the cloisters of the great library of Alexandria, as a discipline blending the twin pursuits of Strabo’s poetic impression of places, and Herodotus’ chronicles of events and cultures. Eratosthenes, a librarian at Alexandria, and the mathematician Ptolemy employed geometry as another language with which to pursue ‘earth-writing’. From this ancient, East Mediterranean fount, the streams of literary perception, historical record and geographical analysis (phenomenological and Euclidean) found confluence. The aim of this collection is to recover such means and seek the fount of such rich waters, by exploring relations between historical geography, geographic information science (GIS) / geoscience, and textual analysis. The book discusses and illustrates current case studies, trends and discourses in European, American and Asian spheres, where historical geography is practiced in concert with human and physical applications of GIS (and the broader geosciences) and the analysis of text - broadly conceived as archival, literary, historical, cultural, climatic, scientific, digital, cinematic and media. Time as a multi-scaled concept (again, broadly conceived) is the pivot around which the interdisciplinary contributions to this volume revolve.  In The Landscape of Time (2002) the historian John Lewis Gaddis posits: “What if we were to think of history as a kind of mapping?” He links the ancient practice of mapmaking with the three-part conception of time (past, present, and future). Gaddis presents the practices of cartography and historical narrative as attempts to manage infinitely complex subjects by imposing abstract grids to frame the phenomena being examined— longitude and latitude to frame landscapes and, occidental and oriental temporal scales to frame timescapes. Gaddis contends that if the past is a landscape and history is the way we represent it, then it follows that pattern recognition constitutes a primary form of human perception, one that can be parsed empirically, statistically and phenomenologically. In turn, this volume reasons that literary, historical, cartographical, scientific, mathematical, and counterfactual narratives create their own spatio-temporal frames of reference. Confluences between the poetic and the positivistic; the empirical and the impressionistic; the epic and the episodic; and the chronologic and the chorologic, can be identified and studied by integrating practices in historical geography, GIScience / geoscience and textual analysis. As a result, new perceptions and insights, facilitating further avenues of scholarship into uncharted waters emerge. The various ways in which geographical, historical and textual perspectives are hermeneutically woven together in this volume illuminates the different methods with which to explore terrae incognitaes of knowledge beyond the shores of their own separate disciplinary islands.

International scholarship is increasingly aware that the ‘geographical tradition’ is a contentious and contested field: while critical reflections on the imperial past of the discipline are still ongoing, new tendencies including de-colonial studies and geographies of internationalism are focusing on the progressive aspects of plural geographical traditions. This volume contains selected papers presented at two Symposia of the Commission on the History of Geography of the International Geographical Union within the 25th International Congress of History of Science and Technology which took place in Rio de Janeiro in July 2017.The papers address processes of ‘decolonising’ and ‘internationalising’ science in the 19th and 20th century, with a special emphasis on geography. Internationalization, circulation and dissemination of geographical concepts and ideas are in the focus. The volume includes case studies on Latin America, tropical regions as well as Europe and Japan. Thereis also an emphasis on the history of international congresses and organizations and on the international circulation of knowledge.

International scholarship is increasingly aware that the ‘geographical tradition’ is a contentious and contested field: while critical reflections on the imperial past of the discipline are still ongoing, new tendencies including de-colonial studies and geographies of internationalism are focusing on the progressive aspects of plural geographical traditions. This volume contains selected papers presented at two Symposia of the Commission on the History of Geography of the International Geographical Union within the 25th International Congress of History of Science and Technology which took place in Rio de Janeiro in July 2017.The papers address processes of ‘decolonising’ and ‘internationalising’ science in the 19th and 20th century, with a special emphasis on geography. Internationalization, circulation and dissemination of geographical concepts and ideas are in the focus. The volume includes case studies on Latin America, tropical regions as well as Europe and Japan. Thereis also an emphasis on the history of international congresses and organizations and on the international circulation of knowledge.

This book describes the 1873 voyage of the British explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith, based on the diaries and photographs of Lieutenant Herbert C. Chermside, who joined the expedition of the seas around Svalbard. Chermside’s photographs, long believed lost, have recently been uncovered in Sweden and are being curated there by the Grenna Museum. The three unpublished diaries of Herbert Chermside were lent to the Scott Polar Research Institute in 1939 by Mrs. Benjamin Leigh Smith. For the first time, Chermside’s diaries are published in their entirety, with the original photographs shown alongside modern images of the same locations. This includes the first photographic record of the north coast of Svalbard, images that are today being used as comparative data for the study of climate change in the archipelago.The diaries have been fully transcribed and edited. Introductory chapters are included, written by specialists in the history of exploration, history of science, and the history of photography from Penn State University, the University of Gothenburg, and UiT, the Arctic University of Norway, as well as contributors from the UK and Germany.This volume is published in association with Grenna Museum, which will present Chermside’s photographs in a 2022 exhibit on Leigh Smith and A.E. Nordenskiold.

This book describes the 1873 voyage of the British explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith, based on the diaries and photographs of Lieutenant Herbert C. Chermside, who joined the expedition of the seas around Svalbard. Chermside’s photographs, long believed lost, have recently been uncovered in Sweden and are being curated there by the Grenna Museum. The three unpublished diaries of Herbert Chermside were lent to the Scott Polar Research Institute in 1939 by Mrs. Benjamin Leigh Smith. For the first time, Chermside’s diaries are published in their entirety, with the original photographs shown alongside modern images of the same locations. This includes the first photographic record of the north coast of Svalbard, images that are today being used as comparative data for the study of climate change in the archipelago.The diaries have been fully transcribed and edited. Introductory chapters are included, written by specialists in the history of exploration, history of science, and the history of photography from Penn State University, the University of Gothenburg, and UiT, the Arctic University of Norway, as well as contributors from the UK and Germany.This volume is published in association with Grenna Museum, which will present Chermside’s photographs in a 2022 exhibit on Leigh Smith and A.E. Nordenskiold.

This monograph gives a comprehensive but in-depth analysis of the territorial development of Croatia and historical processes of significant spatial impact. It covers the millennial time span – from prehistory till the present, through relevant periods, e.g., prehistory, antiquity, Middle Ages, period of Ottoman progression and retreat, Post-Ottoman period of development of the Central European railway network, the period of South Slavic political associations (old and new Yugoslavia), and the post-Yugoslav period of independent Croatia.  The book is highly illustrated with maps and figures. It is written by scholars from the region, based on the original research and the vast body of literature. It is one of the only books in English that interprets the overall development of the territory and cultural landscape of Croatia. Its scientific but comprehensive approach makes it of use to scholars, students and anyone interested in historical and geographicalprocesses and features of Croatia and the Balkan region.

This monograph gives a comprehensive but in-depth analysis of the territorial development of Croatia and historical processes of significant spatial impact. It covers the millennial time span – from prehistory till the present, through relevant periods, e.g., prehistory, antiquity, Middle Ages, period of Ottoman progression and retreat, Post-Ottoman period of development of the Central European railway network, the period of South Slavic political associations (old and new Yugoslavia), and the post-Yugoslav period of independent Croatia.  The book is highly illustrated with maps and figures. It is written by scholars from the region, based on the original research and the vast body of literature. It is one of the only books in English that interprets the overall development of the territory and cultural landscape of Croatia. Its scientific but comprehensive approach makes it of use to scholars, students and anyone interested in historical and geographicalprocesses and features of Croatia and the Balkan region.

This book brings together ten empirically rich and theoretically informed contributions that aim to clarify both geo-historical specificities and common transnational and global features of the cultures and practices of boundary making that shaped modern statehood.

This book brings together ten empirically rich and theoretically informed contributions that aim to clarify both geo-historical specificities and common transnational and global features of the cultures and practices of boundary making that shaped modern statehood.

The book covers the modern history of the dispute, reveals the origin of the names for the sea between Korea and Japan, and the historical change of the name on ancient maps of Korea, Japan, and the West, and tracks the naming trends of the East Sea in geography textbooks in the pre-modern and modern times.

The book covers the modern history of the dispute, reveals the origin of the names for the sea between Korea and Japan, and the historical change of the name on ancient maps of Korea, Japan, and the West, and tracks the naming trends of the East Sea in geography textbooks in the pre-modern and modern times.

This book presents the work of Gianfranco Battisti, on Geopolitics and Border Geographies in north-eastern Italy, Europeanization, and Globalization, contributing to debates on the inclusion of non-English speaking scholars in international geography.

This book presents the work of Gianfranco Battisti, on Geopolitics and Border Geographies in north-eastern Italy, Europeanization, and Globalization, contributing to debates on the inclusion of non-English speaking scholars in international geography.

Mining and geological survey work in Jamaica goes back several hundred years and was initiated by the Europeans when they colonized the Island. It is one of the first books of its kind examining the evolution of the mineral sector and geological survey work of Jamaica, set in the framework of the Country's history of over 500 years.

Mining and geological survey work in Jamaica goes back several hundred years and was initiated by the Europeans when they colonized the Island. It is one of the first books of its kind examining the evolution of the mineral sector and geological survey work of Jamaica, set in the framework of the Country's history of over 500 years.

Environment as a Weapon considers how the confluence of war and nature from the time of the Agricultural Revolution (10,000 BCE) to our present day has been represented in works of history, geography, and literature.

Environment as a Weapon considers how the confluence of war and nature from the time of the Agricultural Revolution (10,000 BCE) to our present day has been represented in works of history, geography, and literature.

The Hebrides has long been seen as an area that, when considered over time, was slow to absorb change. Indeed, from the nineteenth century onwards, it attracted the attention of scholars for being seen as having not just the oldest rocks in Europe but also, some of its oldest cultural practices and institutional forms. This unchanging ‘archaic’ character has continued to attract a great deal of research but, over recent decades, a counter view has emerged that highlights the changes that the region did experience. This book argues the case for the latter by drawing out how the institutional forms around which the region and its farming communities were organised changed over time. As background. It highlights the importance of understanding two key inter-related features that underpinned these changes: the low output of Hebridean farming with its high frequency of poor harvests and the range of environmental hazards that beset the region. Brought together, the interaction between these two features makes the survival strategies adopted by communities an important part of the region’s history.Because society/environment interactions are at the heart of the problem, the book’s discussion is presented as a study in human ecology. One of the benchmark studies of the region in modern times, or Sir Fraser Darling’s The West Highland Problem: A Study in Human Ecology (OUP, 1955) adopted such an approach. This book gives this human ecological perspective on the region a greater time-depth.In addition to a Preface and an Epilogue, it is divided into 12 chapters:Title: The Hebridean World: Its Ecological History Through TimePreface1: The Hebrides: Their Physical Endowment and Its Challenges2: The Oldest Cultural Landscapes3: The Hebridean Mix: Picts, Scots and Vikings 4: How Land was Occupied Before Crofting 5: How the Land was Farmed before Crofting 6: Landscapes of Summer: the Shielings7: The Inter Tidal and Beyond: the Harvest of Shore and Sea 8:Survival on the Margins 9: The Landscapes of Crofting 10: The Harvesting and Processing of Grain 11: The Clearances for Sheep and Deer12: Hebridean Housing and SettlementEpilogue

The Hebrides has long been seen as an area that, when considered over time, was slow to absorb change. Indeed, from the nineteenth century onwards, it attracted the attention of scholars for being seen as having not just the oldest rocks in Europe but also, some of its oldest cultural practices and institutional forms. This unchanging ‘archaic’ character has continued to attract a great deal of research but, over recent decades, a counter view has emerged that highlights the changes that the region did experience. This book argues the case for the latter by drawing out how the institutional forms around which the region and its farming communities were organised changed over time. As background. It highlights the importance of understanding two key inter-related features that underpinned these changes: the low output of Hebridean farming with its high frequency of poor harvests and the range of environmental hazards that beset the region. Brought together, the interaction between these two features makes the survival strategies adopted by communities an important part of the region’s history.Because society/environment interactions are at the heart of the problem, the book’s discussion is presented as a study in human ecology. One of the benchmark studies of the region in modern times, or Sir Fraser Darling’s The West Highland Problem: A Study in Human Ecology (OUP, 1955) adopted such an approach. This book gives this human ecological perspective on the region a greater time-depth.In addition to a Preface and an Epilogue, it is divided into 12 chapters:Title: The Hebridean World: Its Ecological History Through TimePreface1: The Hebrides: Their Physical Endowment and Its Challenges2: The Oldest Cultural Landscapes3: The Hebridean Mix: Picts, Scots and Vikings 4: How Land was Occupied Before Crofting 5: How the Land was Farmed before Crofting 6: Landscapes of Summer: the Shielings7: The Inter Tidal and Beyond: the Harvest of Shore and Sea 8:Survival on the Margins 9: The Landscapes of Crofting 10: The Harvesting and Processing of Grain 11: The Clearances for Sheep and Deer12: Hebridean Housing and SettlementEpilogue

This book studies geographical societies, which were the institutional basis of geography until the early twentieth century. Although they were a global phenomenon, most research has focused on the most famous societies (such as Paris, London, and Washington/D.C.), and/or studied societies in isolation from each other. By contrast, our volume also pays attention to societies in less prominent countries and cities, and identifies connections and draws comparisons between various societies within and across national and imperial borders. Moreover, we discuss the societies' role in the professionalisation of geography, and embed them in the historical contexts of nationalism, imperialism, and colonialism. We thus demonstrate the potential geographical societies and their journals still hold for fresh research, and we invite readers to cross the disciplinary boundaries between geography and history. The volume primarily addresses (historical) geographers as well as historians of geography, science, exploration, nation-states, and empires.

This open access book will provide an overview of predominantly geographical and historical discourses connected with mountain landscapes in Montenegro and Slovenia. Very few countries, even considerably larger ones, can boast the mountain landscape diversity found in both countries. Special attention will be given to mountains as a national "symbol" and their role in the making of national identity. Discourses will also focus on the colonization of the mountains and later history, all the way to the contemporary settlements. Attention will be given to the cultural landscape and cultural heritage, such as monuments and architecture. As mountains are important forest areas and their remarkable landscapes constitute a great part of national protected areas attention will also be given to these topics. This will be the first book in English that compares mountain discourses between countries in South-Eastern Europe. Primary audience are geographers, historians,  archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnologists, foresters and landscape architects.

This book presents recent achievements in interdisciplinary archaeological and geological studies as well as new ideas on the development of geological concepts. The territory of Armenia and the South Caucasus region together have been inhabited since Lower Paleolithic times and there is extensive evidence of the prehistoric use of stone and metals and trade of these raw materials. Being situated in the Arabian-Eurasian collision zone, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions also played an important role for Armenia. This book highlights path-breaking associative archaeological and geological research in recent decades, which has contributed enormously to understanding the growth of these two key disciplines in Armenia. It also illuminates information about past human activity, revealing new knowledge of our past through improving reliability of scientific information derived from the potential of archaeologists and geologists to work together in frameworks with a common interest.

The Great Wall—the most imposing manifestation of Chinese frontier history—crosses a vast territory subject to political, environmental and climatic instabilities that the volume approaches as mutually conditioning, focusing on the Ordos region. This has been a central point of contact between sedentary East Asian and nomadic Inner Asian peoples throughout Chinese premodern history (500 BCE-1800).  The contributors emphasize the significance of human-natural interaction affecting environmental and climatological variability central to historical processes on this critical frontier zone. Four case studies are supported by paleoclimatic evidence from documentary information and natural proxies as well as from land-use models showing the complexity of climate-human interplay, in terms of demography, economy, and administrative-military presence. The volume’s interdisciplinary methodology achieves an authoritative integration of both scientific (quantitative) and historical (narrative) approaches to produce a comprehensive history of long-term frontier dynamics.