ISBN:
9780472903511
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource (xi, 306 pages)
Series Statement:
Social history, popular culture, and politics in Germany
DDC:
910
Keywords:
Ratzel, Friedrich
;
Ratzel, Friedrich - 1844-1904
;
Geographers Biography
;
Geopolitics History
;
Political geography History
;
Géographes - Allemagne - Biographies
;
Géopolitique - Allemagne - Histoire
;
Géographie politique - Histoire
;
HISTORY / General
;
Geographers
;
Geopolitics
;
Political geography
;
Biographies
;
History
;
Germany
Abstract:
Life, Earth, Colony explores the ideas, life, and historical significance of German zoologist turned geographer Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904), famous for developing the foundations of geopolitical thought. Ratzel produced a remarkable body of work that revolutionized the study of space, movement, colonization, and war. He also served as a source of intellectual inspiration for national socialism, particularly through his Lebensraum (living space) concept, which understood all life as being caught in an eternal struggle for space. This book closely analyzes this radical conservative intellectual, focusing on his often-overlooked ethnography, biogeography, travel, and creative writing, and colonial activism as well as his more widely-known political geography. Life, Earth, Colony finds that there is an as yet unexplored necropolitical impulse at the heart of Ratzel's entire oeuvre, a preoccupation with death and dying, which had a profound impact on twentieth-century history
Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-306) and index