Palace of Palms: Tropical Dreams and the Making of Kew

TY - BOOK

T1 - Palace of Palms

T2 - Tropical Dreams and the Making of Kew

AU - Teltscher, Kate

PY - 2020/7

Y1 - 2020/7

N2 - Kew’s Palm House offers a prism through which to view Victorian Britain’s imagined place in the world. In recreating the tropics, it declared technology’s triumph over nature. Its global collection suggested the extent of imperial power. Palms were thought to surpass all European vegetation, supplying every necessity of life and endless trading opportunities. This first study of the nineteenth-century fascination with palms provides the historical context for current debates on the modern dependence on palm oil. Combining cultural geography, literary and historical studies, the book’s interdisciplinary approach generates new understandings of Victorian views of science, nature and the non-European world.

AB - Kew’s Palm House offers a prism through which to view Victorian Britain’s imagined place in the world. In recreating the tropics, it declared technology’s triumph over nature. Its global collection suggested the extent of imperial power. Palms were thought to surpass all European vegetation, supplying every necessity of life and endless trading opportunities. This first study of the nineteenth-century fascination with palms provides the historical context for current debates on the modern dependence on palm oil. Combining cultural geography, literary and historical studies, the book’s interdisciplinary approach generates new understandings of Victorian views of science, nature and the non-European world.

M3 - Book

SN - 9781529004854

SN - 9781529004885

BT - Palace of Palms

PB - Picador Pan Macmillan

CY - London

ER -