The Road to Botany Bay
An Exploration of Landscape and History
Critiques the founding myth of Australia
The Road to Botany Bay, first published in 1987 and considered a classic in the field of cultural and historical geography, examines the poetic constitution of colonial society. A powerfully written account of the ways in which language, history, and geography influenced the territorial theater of nineteenth-century imperialism, the book is also a call to think, write, and live differently.
Paul Carter’s bold, ingenious account of nation-founding is itself a kind of founding book—of the adventurous discipline of spatial history. And The Road to Botany Bay is marvelous to read on traveling, on writing, on looking and seeing. A brilliant book for many appetites.
Susan Sontag
The Road to Botany Bay, first published in 1987 and considered a classic in the field of cultural and historical geography, examines the poetic constitution of colonial society. Through a far-reaching exploration of Australia’s mapping, narrative description, early urbanism, and bush mythology, Paul Carter exposes the mythopoetic mechanisms of empire. A powerfully written account of the ways in which language, history, and geography influenced the territorial theater of nineteenth-century imperialism, the book is also a call to think, write, and live differently.
Paul Carter’s bold, ingenious account of nation-founding is itself a kind of founding book—of the adventurous discipline of spatial history. And The Road to Botany Bay is marvelous to read on traveling, on writing, on looking and seeing. A brilliant book for many appetites.
Susan Sontag
In this account of how Australia originated in the acts of settlement, possession, and dispossession, by explorers who traveled, named, and wrote, Carter advances a brilliantly daring notion of imperialism, one with great relevance to other regions of the world.
Edward Said
The Road to Botany Bay undoubtedly stands the test of time – it is ... an engaging and illuminating read, and Carter’s approach is still fresh.
Transnational Literature
Related Publications
The Tourist State
Performing Leisure, Liberalism, and Race in New Zealand
Examining the role of performance in state-making
A Manufactured Wilderness
Summer Camps and the Shaping of American Youth, 1890–1960
An engrossing look at American summer camps—from mess halls to tents to fire circles
A Joint Enterprise
Indian Elites and the Making of British Bombay
An in-depth look at the urban history of British Bombay
The Tragic History of the Sea
Compelling stories of shipwreck, adventure, and death on the high seas, now back in print.
Imperial White
Race, Diaspora, and the British Empire
Analyzing whiteness in nineteenth-century British colonialism from India to Britain to Australia and New Zealand
The Lie of the Land
Migrant Workers and the California Landscape
A hard-hitting look at the story behind California's famous scenery.
Sowing Empire
Landscape and Colonization
Identifies the cultivation and landscaping of colonies as one of the primary ways imperial nations justified their empires