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BestsellerE-book
Author Lawrence, David (David Russell), author.

Title The naturalist and his 'beautiful islands' : Charles Morris Woodford in the Western Pacific / David Russell Lawrence.

Publication Info. Canberra, A.C.T. : ANU Press, [2014]
©2014

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (xiv, 420 pages) : illustrations (chiefly color)
text file
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-420).
Contents Preliminary pages; Acknowledgments; Note on the text; Introduction; 1. Early life and education; 2. Pacific journeys; 3. Commerce, trade and labour; 4. A naturalist in the Solomon Islands; 5. Liberalism, Imperialism and colonial expansion; 6. The British Solomon IslandsProtectorate: Colonialism without capital; 7. Expansion of the Protectorate 1898-1900; 8. The new social order; 9. The plantation economy; 10. The critical question of labour; 11. Woodford and the Western Pacific High Commission; Conclusion; Bibliography.
Summary "In January 1890 the account of three visits to the Solomon Islands made between 1886 and 1889 by the young English naturalist, Charles Morris Woodford, was published in London, to some critical acclaim, by George Philip and Sons. With a typical late-Victorian eye for romance in the exotic, and an appeal to the vogue for tales of adventure and daring, his publisher called the book A Naturalist Among the Head-hunters (Woodford 1890b). In that same year it was published in three editions, one in London, one in Melbourne, and one in New York. For a young traveller's account and first published book, it is well written, sympathetic to the social and economic conditions of the Solomon Islanders of that time and, even now, is very evocative for anyone familiar with the islands and the people. Publication of the book further emphasised the practical value of scientific observation from the field. Arguments about the relationship between observations made in the field and the scientific theorising made in the study and the museum were endemic in the world of 19th century natural history (Driver 1998: 24). Knowledge from the field was not always to be trusted. For the author, the authority of his exploration depended substantially on the writing of a well-accepted narrative of travel"--Introduction.
Local Note JSTOR Books at JSTOR Open Access
Subject Woodford, C. M., 1852-1927.
Woodford, C. M., 1852-1927.
Great Britain. Colonial Office -- Officials and employees -- Biography.
Great Britain. Colonial Office.
Genre/Form Biographies.
Subject Ethnology -- Solomon Islands.
Ethnology.
Solomon Islands.
Natural history -- Solomon Islands.
Natural history.
Colonial administrators -- Solomon Islands -- Biography.
Colonial administrators.
Solomon Islands -- Description and travel.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Biographies.
Other Form: Print version: Lawrence, David (David Russell). Naturalist and his 'beautiful islands'. Anu, Acton, A.C.T. ANU Press, 2014 9781925022032 (OCoLC)884508109
ISBN 9781925022025 (electronic book)
1925022021 (electronic book)
192502203X
9781925022032
9781925022032