History and Progress

Chapter 10 discusses how ideas about historical change influence conceptions of Europe. Late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century geography books typically regard history as a progression through various ‘stages’, an account which often conflates European and world history. But they also often regard the continent as an extant ideal society. This exposes uncertainty about whether to define Europe in terms of unchanging characteristics or mutable historical processes. Some geography books combine these perspectives and interpret historical change in terms of established patterns, a method which allows them to account for Europe’s malleability and its stable qualities.