Sounding in silence: men, machines and the changing environment of naval discipline, 1796–1815

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES POSKETT
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Previous Experience ◽  
Scientific Instrument ◽  
Scientific Instruments ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Important Shift

AbstractLogbooks and sea charts may appear rather straightforward evidence to present at a naval court martial. However, their introduction into proceedings in the early nineteenth century reveals an important shift. Measuring the depth of water soon became a problem both of navigation and of discipline. Indeed, Captain Newcomb's knowledge of the soundings taken at the Battle of the Basque Roads proved crucial at Lord Gambier's court martial in June 1809. Through a case study of Edward Massey's sounding machine, this paper reveals the close connection between disciplinary practices on land and at sea. The Board of Longitude acted as a key intermediary in this respect. By studying land and sea together, this paper better explains the changing make-up of the British scientific instrument trade in this period. Massey is just one example of a range of new entrants, many of whom had little previous experience of the maritime world. More broadly, this paper emphasizes the role of both environmental history and material culture in the study of scientific instruments.

The National and the Universal

2020 ◽  
pp. 368-386
Author(s):  
Sarah Collins
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Johann Gottfried Herder ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
The World ◽  
Respective Treatment ◽  
History Of

This chapter examines the continuities between the categories of the “national” and the “universal” in the nineteenth century. It construes these categories as interrelated efforts to create a “world” on various scales. The chapter explores the perceived role of music as a world-making medium within these discourses. It argues that the increased exposure to cultural difference and the interpretation of that cultural difference as distant in time and space shaped a conception of “humanity” in terms of a universal history of world cultures. The chapter reexamines those early nineteenth-century thinkers whose work became inextricably linked with the rise of exclusivist notions of nationalism in the late nineteenth century, such as Johann Gottfried Herder and John Stuart Mill. It draws from their respective treatment of music to recover their early commitment to universalizable principles and their view that the “world” is something that must be actively created rather than empirically observed.

scholarly journals History, Colonialism, and Archival Methods in Socio-Hydrological Scholarship: A Case Study of the Boerasirie Conservancy in British Guiana

World ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-215
Author(s):  
Joshua Mullenite
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Model Development ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Hydrological Models ◽  
British Guiana ◽  
Current Role

In this article, I review a cross-section of research in socio-hydrology from across disciplines in order to better understand the current role of historical-archival analysis in the development of socio-hydrological scholarship. I argue that despite its widespread use in environmental history, science and technology studies, anthropology, and human geography, archival methods are currently underutilized in socio-hydrological scholarship more broadly, particularly in the development of socio-hydrological models. Drawing on archival research conducted in relation to the socio-hydrology of coastal Guyana, I demonstrate the ways in which such scholarship can be readily incorporated into model development.

Stone Tools

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodney Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Old World ◽  
Material Culture Studies ◽  
History Of

The focus of this article is stone tools. The history of stone tool research is linked integrally to the history of archaeology and the study of the human past, and many of the early developments in archaeology were connected with the study of stone artefacts. The identification of stone tools as objects of prehistoric human manufacture was central to the development of nineteenth-century models of prehistoric change, and especially the Three Age system for Old World prehistory. This article draws on concepts derived from interdisciplinary material culture studies to consider the role of the artefact after being discarded. It suggests that it is impossible to understand the meaning or efficacy of stone tools without understanding their ‘afterlives’ following abandonment. This article aims to complement contemporary metrical studies of the identification of stone tools and the description of their production. A brief history of the stone tools is explained and this concludes the article.

Geopolitics of Comparison: World Literature Avant la Lettre

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-269
Author(s):  
Waïl S. Hassan
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Comparative Literature ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
History Of

Abstract According to a well-known narrative, the concept of Weltliteratur and its academic correlative, the discipline of comparative literature, originated in Germany and France in the early nineteenth century, influenced by the spread of scientism and nationalism. But there is another genesis story that begins in the late eighteenth century in Spain and Italy, countries with histories entangled with the Arab presence in Europe during the medieval period. Emphasizing the role of Arabic in the formation of European literatures, Juan Andrés wrote the first comparative history of “all literature,” before the concepts of Weltliteratur and comparative literature gained currency. The divergence of the two genesis stories is the result of competing geopolitical interests, which determine which literatures enter into the sphere of comparison, on what terms, within which paradigms, and under what ideological and discursive conditions.

The living conditions of Gypsy slaves in early nineteenth-century Wallachia

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-55
Author(s):  
DAVID GAUNT ◽  
JULIETA ROTARU
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Household Size ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Majority Population ◽  
Ethnic Attitudes

Very little research has been done specifically on the condition of the Gypsy slaves in Wallachia. Most general histories ignore them, and few contemporary observers studied them. This is just one more sign of their discrimination and neglect. This study draws on the exhaustive nominal lists of the Romani population from the database MapRom which draws on the first preserved count of the population of Danubian principalities (1838). Many aspects of the rob-slave condition have been analysed, the household size, the socio-professional and juridical categories and the Gypsy owners, the degree to which the Gypsies in Wallachia were integrated into the majority population and the ethnic attitudes of the surrounding population, and a case study of formation of a Gypsy settlement.

The Courtown Land Agents and Transnational Estate Management, 1850–1900

2018 ◽  
pp. 93-108
Author(s):  
Rachel Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Financial Situation ◽  
Management Structure ◽  
Victorian Period ◽  
Estate Management

The nature of estate agencies across the four nations during the nineteenth century varied depending on the size and location of the estate, and the financial situation of the landlord. In short, just as estates were not homogenous, neither were the agencies that managed them. This chapter considers the management structure of a transnational estate during the second half of the nineteenth century, using the Courtown estate as a case study. It examines the roles of the agents, sub-agents and bailiffs employed on the estate during this period. It is hoped that the study will enable comparison with other estates within the four nations, leading to a deeper understanding of the role of the land agent during the Victorian period.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Bill Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Evolutionary Theories ◽  
Evolutionary Thought ◽  
History Of

The introduction sets the scene by exploring the role of Edinburgh as a centre for the development and propagation of pre-Darwinian evolutionary theories. It gives essential background on natural history in the Scottish capital in early nineteenth century and the history of evolutionary thought and outlines the aims and objectives of the book. In addition, it explores some of the historiographical issues raised by earlier historians of science who have discussed the role of Edinburgh in the development of evolutionary thought in Great Britain.

Wilderness of Waters

2018 ◽  
pp. 14-40
Author(s):  
Jason W. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Maritime Culture ◽  
Empirical Rationality ◽  
The U.S

This chapter examines the origins of navigational science in the American maritime culture of the early nineteenth century, in marine societies, and in the U.S. Navy, linking the institutionalization of naval science to the broader expansion of American maritime commerce and the evolving role of science in the federal government more broadly. The chapter argues that naval scientists, surveyors, and cartographers saw their work as bringing empirical rationality to a watery wilderness, imposing cartographic order over nature and an appropriation of space in the interests of American maritime commerce. In the process, they aimed to replace folkloric and experiential navigational understandings deeply held by the American seafaring community with a growing embrace of science institutionalized in the federal government and in the American navy specifically.

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