Cart
Free US shipping over $10
Proud to be B-Corp

Seeds of Empire Summary

Seeds of Empire: The Environmental Transformation of New Zealand by Tom Brooking (University of Otago, New Zealand)

The traditional image of New Zealand is one of verdant landscapes with sheep grazing on lush green pastures. Yet this landscape is almost entirely an artificial creation. As Britain became increasingly reliant on its overseas territories for supplies of food and raw material, so all over the Empire indigenous plants were replaced with English grasses to provide the worked up products of pasture - meat, butter, cheese, wool, and hides. In New Zealand this process was carried to an extreme, with forest cleared and swamps drained. How, why and with what consequences did the transformation of New Zealand into these empires of grass occur? 'Seeds of Empire' provides both an exciting appraisal of New Zealand's environmental history and a long overdue exploration of the significance of grass in the processes of sowing empire.

About Tom Brooking (University of Otago, New Zealand)

Tom Brooking is Professor of History at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He is co-editor (with Eric Pawson) of Environmental Histories of New Zealand (2002) and is a member of the Council of the Agricultural History Society. Eric Pawson is Professor of Geography at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He chaired the Advisory Committee for the New Zeland Historical Atlas. In 2007 he received the Distinguished New Zealand Geographer Medal.

Table of Contents

Preface Contributors Terminology, Maori language conventions, place names and measurements Figures and Tables 1 Introduction 2 The contours of transformation 3 Learning about the environment in early colonial New Zealand 4 Pioneer grassland farming: pragmatism, innovation and experimentation 5 Pastoralism and the transformation of the open grasslands 6 Mobilising capital and trade 7 The grass seed trade 8 Flows of agricultural information 9 The farmer, science and the state in New Zealand 10 Remaking the grasslands: the 1920s and 1930s 11 Conclusion Appendix 1: Common and formal names of plants Appendix 2: Short biographies of twelve pasture plants Notes Index

Additional information

NLS9781350166004
9781350166004
1350166006
Seeds of Empire: The Environmental Transformation of New Zealand by Tom Brooking (University of Otago, New Zealand)
New
Paperback
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
2020-05-28
296
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

Customer Reviews - Seeds of Empire