New Book: Nature's Colony: Empire, Nation and Environment in the Singapore Botanic Gardens

Timothy P Barnard Discussion

Dear members,

I am pleased to announce the publication of my book

Timothy P. Barnard, Nature’s Colony: Empire, Nation and Environment in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2016. 304 pages. ISBN: 978-9814-72-222-3

Established in 1859, the Singapore Botanic Gardens has played an important role in society as a park and a scientific institution, as well as an economic testing ground and launchpad for tropical plantation agriculture around the world. Initially conceived to exploit nature for the benefit of empire, the Gardens were part of a symbolic struggle by administrators, scientists, and gardeners to assert dominance within Southeast Asia’s tropical landscape, reflecting shifting understandings of power, science and nature among local administrators and distant mentors in Britain. With the independence of Singapore, the Gardens has had to find a new role, first in the “greening” of post-independence Singapore, and now as Singapore's first World Heritage Site. Underlying each of these stories is the broader narrative of the Botanic Gardens as an arena where power and the natural world meet and interact, a story that has impact far beyond the boundaries of its grounds. Setting the Singapore gardens alongside the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and botanic gardens in India, Ceylon, Mauritius and the West Indies, this book tells the story of nature’s colony — a place where plants were collected, classified and cultivated to change our understanding of the region and world.

 

Table of contents:

1: Nature’s Colony

2: Creating a Garden

3: Conservation and Forests

4: A Zoo in the Gardens

5: The Economic Garden

6: Hortus Singapurensis

7: Improving on Nature in the Laboratory

8: The Gardens in a Garden City

 

This book is published by the National University of Singapore Press. It will be available in the United States from February 2017 via the University of Chicago Press. 

For further information, please visit: http://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/natures-colony-empire-nation-and-environment-in-the-singapore-botanic-gardens and http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/N/bo26240441.html