Like many European countries during the Great Age of Discovery and Exploration, Russia embarked on policies of state building, exploration and imperial expansion. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the territory under Moscow’s control was about twenty thousand square kilometres. By 1800 Russia’s empire had expanded to some eighteen million square kilometres. Russia had… Read More Denis J. B. Shaw (2024): Reconnoitring Russia Mapping, Exploring and Describing Early Modern Russia, 1613-1825. UCL Press: London.

Offers perspectives from a wide range of contexts and national traditions that decenter the Anglo-centric discussions. The mid-20th-century quantitative revolution is frequently regarded as a decisive moment in the history of geography, transforming it into a modern and applied spatial science. This book highlights the different temporalities and spatialities of local geographies laying the ground… Read More Katharina Paulus, Ferenc Gyuris, Boris Michel (eds.) (2024): Recalibrating the Quantitative Revolution in Geography Travels, Networks, Translations. Routledge: London and New York.

hundred years after the tragic 1924 British Everest expedition, this collection explores the wider social and cultural history of the mountain. Mount Everest looms large in the popular imagination. Since the deaths of mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine in 1924, histories of the mountain have overwhelmingly focused on the mythologies of western male adventure… Read More Paul Gilchrist, Peter Hansen and Jonathan Westaway (eds.) (2024): Other Everests. One mountain, many worlds. Manchester University Press: Manchester.

Life, Earth, Colony explores the ideas, life, and historical significance of German zoologist turned geographer Friedrich Ratzel (1844–1904), famous for developing the foundations of geopolitical thought. Ratzel produced a remarkable body of work that revolutionized the study of space, movement, colonization, and war. He also served as a source of intellectual inspiration for national socialism,… Read More Ian Klinke (2023): Life, Earth, Colony. Friedrich Ratzel’s Necropolitical Geography. University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor.

This book examines the processes of scientific, cultural, political, technical, colonial and violent appropriation during the 19th century. The 19th century was the century of world travel. The earth was explored, surveyed, described, illustrated, and categorized. Travelogues became world bestsellers. Modern technology accompanied the travelers and adventurers: clocks, a postal and telegraph system, surveying equipment,… Read More Jörn Happel, Melanie Hussinger, and Hajo Raupach (ed.) (2024): Expeditions in the Long Nineteenth Century Discovering, Surveying, and Ordering: Routledge: New York and London.

The world is warming rapidly and this change is most noticeable in mountains with already observable consequences on temperature extremes, water cycle, plant and animal distribution, and the resilience of local livelihoods. This book presents concepts, methodologies and major achievements of recent research in climate change ecology in mountains by placing this research in a… Read More Oliver Dangles (2023): Climate Change on Mountains Reviving Humboldt’s Approach to Science. Springer Nature Switzerland.

This book examines the role of photography and visual culture in the emergence of ecological science between 1895 and 1939. Offers a new perspective on how ecological science developed Illuminates photography’s role in shaping new forms of knowledge Informed by the author’s own experience as a field ecologist, photographer and photohistorian

Jahrhundertelang träumten europäische Seefahrer vergeblich von einer Ostroute durchs sibirische Eismeer: Willem Barents und Vitus Bering erlagen nach ihren »Entdeckungen« Spitzbergens und der Beringstraße den Strapazen ihrer Expeditionen, und selbst der erfolgsverwöhnte James Cook scheiterte an der Suche nach dem östlichen Ausgang aus den Eismassen. Die Sowjetunion erkämpfte sich den Seeweg durch den Einsatz von… Read More Andreas Renner (2024): Nordostpassage. Geschichte eines Seewegs. mareverlag: Hamburg.

Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts begann die Pionierzeit der wissenschaftlichen geologischen Erforschung der Erde. Mit oft geradezu lächerlich geringen technischen Hilfsmitteln gelang es einigen genialen Wissenschaftlern grundlegende Erkenntnisse über komplexe geologische Prozesse zu erlangen. Sprengkraft hatten das sich allmählich entwickelnde Verständnis für die gewaltigen geologischen Zeitspannen und deren Bedeutung für die Entwicklung des Lebens. Aufgrund dieses… Read More Mathias Harzhauser und ‎Stefanie Jovanovic-Kruspel (Hrsg.) (2023): Hochstetters Auckland-Tagebuch. Erstes Neuseeland-Tagebuch des Geologen Ferdinand von Hochstetter: ein Aufschluss in Buchform. Naturhistorisches Museum Wien: Wien.