Description: The Earth and Its Inhabitants: Europe (5 volume set) Illustrated by Numerous Engravings and Maps By Elisee Reclus Published D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1882. Five large volumes in uniform green 1/4 leather bindings. Marbled page edges & end papers, pages generally clean and the volumes are tight, each volume with detailed table of contents and an index. Prior ownership inscription of Geo. R. French, Jr. of Wilmington, NC (1883). The French family were a prominent Wilmington family that owned and operated the largest shoe repair business in Wilmington. Details on each below. This five-volume set (all that was completed as of 1882) is the complete section on Europe, of a set that would later encompass the entire world and expand to 19 volumes. The gorgeous production has hundreds of illustrations of scenes - some of which were to be destroyed by war some thirty-five years later. They show Europe as it was, and the people as they were, when the old distinctive ethnic clothing was worn every day, and not just in remembrance on special occasions. Jacques Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer, idealist, and anarchist; the son of a Calvinist minister. His political radicalism forced him to live away from France, at times in extreme poverty; he lived at one point near New Orleans as the tutor of a French family who were plantation and slave owners. His great work of geography, La Nouvelle Geographie Universelle began to be published about 1880, with the last volume completed in 1894. "His combination of scholarly geography and political anarchy embarrassed the university world, which is why he has been partially forgotten." - museeprotestant online. In 1892 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Paris Geographical Society for this work, despite having been banished from France because of his political activism.At Clarens, Switzerland, "he wrote nearly the whole of his work, La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes, 'an examination of every continent and country in terms of the effects that geographic features like rivers and mountains had on human populations and vice versa,' This compilation was profusely illustrated with maps, plans, and engravings. It was awarded the gold medal of the Paris Geographical Society in 1892. An English edition was published simultaneously, also in 19 volumes, the first four translated by E. G. Ravenstein, the rest by A. H. Keane. Reclus's writings were characterized by extreme accuracy and brilliant exposition, which gave them permanent literary and scientific value."According to Kirkpatrick Sale: 'His geographical work, thoroughly researched and unflinchingly scientific, laid out a picture of human-nature interaction that we today would call bioregionalism. It showed, with more detail than anyone but a dedicated geographer could possibly absorb, how the ecology of a place determined the kinds of lives and livelihoods its denizens would have and thus how people could properly live in self-regarding and self-determined bioregions without the interference of large and centralized governments that always try to homogenize diverse geographical areas.'" - courtesy of wikipedia.Volume One: Greece, Turkey in Europe, Rumania, Servia, Montenegro, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Eight color maps: Ethnological Map of Europe, Turkey-in-Europe and Greece, The Bosphorus and Constantinople, Ethnographical Map of Turkey, Italy, The Delta of the Po, The Bay of Naples, Spain and Portugal. Thirty-two full-page plates. 498 text illustrations. viii., 504 pp.Volume Two: France and Switzerland. Seven color maps: France, Geological; France, Political; Mont Blanc; The Volcanoes of Central France; Geological Map of the Paris Basin; Switzerland; Mount St .Gotthard. Thirty-four full-page plates. 334 text illustrations. viii., 504 pp.Volume Three: Austria-Hungary, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Six color maps: Germany and Austria, Vienna and its Environs, The Rhine from Mayence to Coblenz, Dresden and Saxon Switzerland, Berlin and its Environs, Hamburg and its Environs. Thirty-four full-page plates. 284 text illustrations. viii., 504 pp.Volume Four: The British Isles. Eight color maps: British Islands I've done my best to describe the book, but if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail.
Price: 450 USD
Location: Clemmons, North Carolina
End Time: 2024-12-19T15:53:37.000Z
Shipping Cost: 14.95 USD
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Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Binding: Leather
Special Attributes: 1st Edition, Illustrated
Topic: Europe
Subject: History
Year Printed: 1882
Original/Facsimile: Original
