Description
A fascinating study of the importance of ideas of friendship in late eighteenth-century explorations of the Pacific.
About the Author
Vanessa Smith teaches in the Department of English at the University of Sydney. She is the author of Literary Culture and the Pacific: Nineteenth-Century Textual Encounters (1998) and co-editor of Exploration and Exchange: A South Seas Anthology 1680-1900 (2000) and Islands in History and Representation (2003).
Reviews
''Friendship' looms large in stories of early encounters in the Pacific, but up until now has been unanalysed, and seemed unanalysable. This is a genuinely cross-disciplinary study, animated by an impressive understanding of anthropological sources and early voyage texts; it gives us a fresh understanding of foundational moments in the modern history of empire and global interaction.' Nicholas Thomas, University of Cambridge
'Drawing on an exceptionally wide range of recent and historical sources this richly interdisciplinary book explores the meanings of friendship in the Pacific in a series of lively and lucidly argued studies. Smith's challenging case for the centrality of personal emotional commerce to early European interactions in the Pacific islands is an important and exciting contribution to Empire studies.' Harriet Guest, University of York
'... a breathtaking and inspiring work ...' History Australia
'... a bold and welcome contribution ...' American Historical Review
'... an invaluable reflection on the meanings of friendship ...' Pacific Affairs
'... an interdisciplinary and multinuanced exercise that does much to move our understanding of European encounters ... into hitherto neglected areas ...' Journal of Early Modern History
'... inspiring in the range of its insight, and has the potential to reconfigure the way we approach the history of encounters ...' International Journal of Maritime History
Book Information
ISBN 9780521437516
Author Vanessa Smith
Format Hardback
Page Count 336
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 650g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 160mm * 19mm