The Birth of Territory

The Birth of Territory by Stuart Elden

Territory is one of the central political concepts of the modern world and, indeed, functions as the primary way the world is divided and controlled politically. Yet territory has not received the critical attention afforded to other crucial concepts such as sovereignty, rights, and justice. While territory continues to matter politically, and territorial disputes and arrangements are studied in detail, the concept of territory itself is often neglected today. Where did the idea of exclusive ownership of a portion of the earth's surface come from, and what kinds of complexities are hidden behind that seemingly straightforward definition? The Birth of Territory provides a detailed account of the emergence of territory within Western political thought. Looking at ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and early modern thought, Stuart Elden examines the evolution of the concept of territory from ancient Greece to the seventeenth century to determine how we arrived at our contemporary understanding. Elden addresses a range of historical, political, and literary texts and practices, as well as a number of key players - historians, poets, philosophers, theologians, and secular political theorists - and in doing so sheds new light on the way the world came to be ordered and how the earth's surface is divided, controlled, and administered.

"This is a brilliant intellectual exegesis of the concept of territory that will be of wide interest in a range of academic fields, from international relations to historical sociology and the history of political thought" (John Agnew, University of California, Los Angeles)"

Stuart Elden is professor of political geography at Durham University, UK, and social sciences director of Durham's Institute of Advanced Study. He is the author of four books, including, most recently, Terror and Territory: The Spatial Extent of Sovereignty.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780226202570
ISBN 10	0226202577
Titel	The Birth of Territory
Autor	Stuart Elden
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Paperback
Verlag	The University of Chicago Press
Erscheinungsjahr	2013-09-11
Seitenanzahl	512
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar