Stuart Elden: The Birth of Territory | My New Book in 750 Words
▻http://www.exploringgeopolitics.org/mnb/stuart-elden-the-birth-of-territory
1. What are the main themes of the book?
The book provides a reading of Western political thought, from Greek myth and tragedy to the early eighteenth century. It examines the relation between place, power and politics in a range of different texts, in order to trace the emergence of the concept and practice of what we now call, somewhat unquestioningly, ‘territory’.
2. What are the central questions of the book?
The book tries to examine different ways political thinkers and others have understood the relation between politics and geography, broadly understood. I argue that it is not helpful to assume that previous times and places thought in the same way as we do now, just with territories and boundaries in different places.
Rather, through close textual and contextualised readings I show how they understood the practices and concepts. Out of all of these, a recognisably modern concept of territory emerges. But it is a complicated and multi-faceted story.