{"product_id":"star-territory-printing-the-universe-in-nineteenth-century-america-hardback-9780812252927","title":"Star Territory; Printing the Universe in Nineteenth-Century America (Hardback) 9780812252927","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eStar Territory\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003ePrinting the Universe in Nineteenth-Century America\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eGordon Fraser (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812252927\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 4 June 2021\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e264 pages, 11 halftones, 7 tables\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.526 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"\u003cp\u003eA work of magisterial historiography, \u003ci\u003eStar Territory\u003c\/i\u003e operates bicamerally to reveal nineteenth-century\u003cbr\u003e astronomical efforts to shore up U.S. power alongside counterefforts to undermine or redirect it...[The book's] treatment of the nineteenth century is both luminous and exhaustive.\u003c\/p\u003e \" (Isis)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe United States has been a space power since its founding, Gordon Fraser writes. The white stars on its flag reveal the dream of continental elites that the former colonies might constitute a \"new constellation\" in the firmament of nations. The streets and avenues of its capital city were mapped in reference to celestial observations. And as the nineteenth century unfolded, all efforts to colonize the North American continent depended upon the science of surveying, or mapping with reference to celestial movement. Through its built environment, cultural mythology, and exercise of military power, the United States has always treated the cosmos as a territory available for exploitation.\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eStar Territory\u003c\/i\u003e Fraser explores how from its beginning, agents of the state, including President John Adams, Admiral Charles Henry Davis, and astronomer Maria Mitchell, participated in large-scale efforts to map the nation onto cosmic space. Through almanacs, maps, and star charts, practical information and exceptionalist mythologies were transmitted to the nation's soldiers, scientists, and citizens.\u003cbr\u003e This is, however, only one part of the story Fraser tells. From the country's first Black surveyors, seamen, and publishers to the elected officials of the Cherokee Nation and Hawaiian resistance leaders, other actors established alternative cosmic communities. These Black and indigenous astronomers, prophets, and printers offered ways of understanding the heavens that broke from the work of the U.S. officials for whom the universe was merely measurable and exploitable.\u003cbr\u003e Today, NASA administrators advocate public-private partnerships for the development of space commerce while the military seeks to control strategic regions above the atmosphere. If observers imagine that these developments are the direct offshoots of a mid-twentieth-century space race, Fraser brilliantly demonstrates otherwise. The United States' efforts to exploit the cosmos, as well as the resistance to these efforts, have a history that starts nearly two centuries before the Gemini and Apollo missions of the 1960s.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eContents\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1. Almanacs in the Astronomical Nation\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2. The Emancipatory Cosmology of the First Black Press\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3. Cherokee Astronomy\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4. The National Almanac in Peace and War\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5. Hawaiian Cosmography in Print\u003cbr\u003e Epilogue. The Third Space Age\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52694717464856,"sku":"9780812252927","price":27.88,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/star-territory-printing-the-universe-in-nineteenth-century-america-hardback-9780812252927","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}