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This volume provides a practical introduction to spatial history through the lens of the different primary sources that historians use. It is informed by a range of analytical perspectives and conveys a sense of the various facets of spatial history in a tangible, case-study based manner.
The chapter authors hail from a variety of fields, including early modern and modern history, architectural history, historical anthropology, economic and social history, as well as historical and human geography, highlighting the way in which spatial history provides a common forum that facilitates discussion across disciplines. The geographical scope of the volume takes readers on a journey through central, western, and east central Europe, to Russia, the Mediterranean, the Ottoman Empire, and East Asia, as well as North and South America, and New Zealand. Divided into three parts, the book covers particular types of sources, different kinds of space, and specific concepts, tools and approaches, offering the reader a thorough understanding of how sources can be used within spatial history specifically but also the different ways of looking at history more broadly.
Very much focusing on doing spatial history, this is an accessible guide for both undergraduate and postgraduate students within modern history and its related fields.
List of contents
Introduction - Spatial history: an expansive field Part 1: Working with sources 1. Maps 2. Travel guides 3. Novels, autobiographies and memoirs 4. Newspaper archives 5. Architectural drawings Part 2: Exploring spaces 6. Ships 7. Bars 8. Rivers 9. Infrastructures 10. Border zones Part 3: Reflecting on concepts, tools, and approaches 11. Lefebvrean landscapes 12. Maritoriality 13. Regional imaginaries 14. Economic geographies 15. Digital mapping Selected Bibliography
About the author
Riccardo Bavaj is Professor of Modern History, University of St Andrews, UK, and Co-Director of the Institute for Transnational and Spatial History. His research focuses on the intellectual and spatial history of 20th-century Germany. He has co-edited Germany and ‘the West’ and Zivilisatorische Verortungen (with Martina Steber).
Konrad Lawson is Lecturer in Modern History, University of St Andrews, UK, and Co-Director of the Institute for Transnational and Spatial History. His research focuses on modern East Asian history and the aftermaths of Japanese empire.
Bernhard Struck is Reader of Modern History, University of St Andrews, UK, and Founding Director of the Institute for Transnational and Spatial History. His research focuses on continental European History, c.1750 to early 20th-century, comparative and transnational history. He has co-edited Shaping the Transnational Sphere (with Davide Rodogno and Jakob Vogel).
Summary
This book provides a practical introduction to spatial history through the lens of the different primary sources that historians use. It is informed by a range of analytical perspectives and conveys a sense of the various facets of spatial history in a tangible, case-study based manner for students of modern history and its related fields.
Additional text
"Doing Spatial History provides a rich, diverse and compelling exploration of sources, spaces and concepts useful for conducting spatially sensitive historical research. More than that, it showcases vibrant and accessible conversations across historical disciplines, different periods and an array of places, underlining the enormous potential of the emerging and energetic field of spatial history."
Diarmid A. Finnegan, Queen's University Belfast, UK
"With an ecumenical spirit, Doing Spatial History offers a concrete guide to researching the lived experience of the past. Authors from various fields show us how sources ranging from police records and maritime contracts to novels and maps can enrich and complicate the humanities. Researchers will especially appreciate the introduction, which offers both a helpful entry point to the field and an overview of its literature."
Susan Schulten, University of Denver, USA
"For a spatial historian who has been working for some 20 years to introduce space as an analytical category into the historical and cultural sciences, it is a particular pleasure to see this 'guide to using historical sources' published. It is long overdue. For real and imagined places – from bars to borders – the volume shows what difference 'doing spatial history' can make."
Susanne Rau, University of Erfurt, Germany
