Imperial Weather: Meteorology, Science, and the Environment in Colonial Malaya - Couverture rigide

Williamson, Fiona Clare

 
9780822948421: Imperial Weather: Meteorology, Science, and the Environment in Colonial Malaya
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0822948427 ISBN 13 : 9780822948421
Editeur : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2025

Synopsis

Tropical weather in colonial Malaya presented an unknown atmosphere that manifested in extremes and uncertainties. From 1840 to 1940, the Indigenous landscapes of Singapore and Penang Islands were altered in ways that will never be reclaimed, the natural ecology of much of the peninsula forever changed by the British colonial government. With this book, Fiona Williamson revisits the fraught relationship between climate, weather science, and empire within the Straits Settlements in the long nineteenth century. Her book examines official and scientific responses to local weathers within the multicultural ports and peripheries of Singapore and George Town, Malaysia. The challenges of creating a livable environment in tropical conditions, she explains, frequently pushed the colonial government beyond its capacities, and solutions often came at the expense of nature, which, ironically, made managing the weather more problematic. Imperial Weather offers a deep exploration of various official attempts to understand and apply structure to the previously unknown or uncontrollable through knowledge gathering, institutionalization, and technological and infrastructural change. Drawing from the history of science—especially the history of meteorology—and environmental history, it explores the multiple interests, capacities, and capabilities at play, including the state of scientific knowledge and the economy, funding, and importantly, socioenvironmental needs and practicalities.

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À propos de l?auteur

Fiona Williamson is professor of environmental history in the College of Integrative Studies at Singapore Management University. She is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and copresident of the International Commission for the History of Meteorology.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
University of Pittsburgh Press
Date d'édition
2025
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0822948427
ISBN 13 
9780822948421
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
320
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible