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Sociable Knowledge: National History and the Nation in Early Modern Britain, written by Elizabeth Yale


Sociable Knowledge: National History and the Nation in Early Modern Britain, written by... What’s a Britain? That question, as Elizabeth Yale’s splendid monograph shows, perplexed early modern topographers, natural historians, philologists, and antiquarians no less than it plagues its current occupants. Both groups struggled to answer this question by establishing boundaries based on geography, population, history, language, trade and more. Though it seems bleak right now, we can at least hope that the current round of questioning proves as intellectually generative as it was for John Aubrey, Edward Lhuyd, and others in the seventeenth century.
Yale’s meticulous research examines how figures like John Evelyn, John Ray, and Robert Plot sought to establish “Britain” as an object of scientific knowledge. How, they wondered, did that gray and verdant archipelago coalesce into a nation – if it did it all? This enterprise forced them to weigh the relative significance of geography, fauna and flora, language, history, ethnicity, and other dimensions. Britain was neither a self-evident nor an easily fixed category, and whenever scholars sought establish what it was, Yale shows, their answers were conditioned by their own methods of inquiry. Indeed, the book’s major contribution lies in how she fuses a novel compound of British history, the history of the book, and the history of http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Early Science and Medicine Brill

Sociable Knowledge: National History and the Nation in Early Modern Britain, written by Elizabeth Yale


Early Science and Medicine , Volume 21 (6): 4 – Jan 25, 2016

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1383-7427
eISSN
1573-3823
DOI
10.1163/15733823-00216p13
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

What’s a Britain? That question, as Elizabeth Yale’s splendid monograph shows, perplexed early modern topographers, natural historians, philologists, and antiquarians no less than it plagues its current occupants. Both groups struggled to answer this question by establishing boundaries based on geography, population, history, language, trade and more. Though it seems bleak right now, we can at least hope that the current round of questioning proves as intellectually generative as it was for John Aubrey, Edward Lhuyd, and others in the seventeenth century.
Yale’s meticulous research examines how figures like John Evelyn, John Ray, and Robert Plot sought to establish “Britain” as an object of scientific knowledge. How, they wondered, did that gray and verdant archipelago coalesce into a nation – if it did it all? This enterprise forced them to weigh the relative significance of geography, fauna and flora, language, history, ethnicity, and other dimensions. Britain was neither a self-evident nor an easily fixed category, and whenever scholars sought establish what it was, Yale shows, their answers were conditioned by their own methods of inquiry. Indeed, the book’s major contribution lies in how she fuses a novel compound of British history, the history of the book, and the history of

Journal

Early Science and MedicineBrill

Published: Jan 25, 2016

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