AN EMPIRE TRANSFORMED

Examines the efforts to bring political order to the English empire through projects of environmental improvement When Charles II ascended the English throne in 1660 after two decades of civil war he was confronted with domestic disarray and a sprawling empire in chaos His government sought to assert control and affirm the King s sovereignty by touting his stewardship of both England s land and the improvement of his subjects health By initiating ambitious projects of environmental engineering including fen and marshland drainage forest rehabilitation urban reconstruction and garden transplantation schemes agents of the English Restoration government aimed to transform both places and people in service of establishing order Merchants colonial officials and members of the Royal Society encouraged royal intervention in places deemed unhealthy unproductive or poorly managed Their multiple schemes reflected an enduring belief in the complex relationships between the health of individual bodies personal and communal character and the landscapes they inhabited In this deeply researched work Kate Mulry highlights a period of innovation during which officials reassessed the purpose of colonies weighed their benefits and drawbacks and engineered and institu