Robin A. Butlin is Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Leeds. His previous publications include Geography and Imperialism, 1820 1940 (co-edited with M. Bell and M. Heffernan, 1995), Historical Geography: Through the Gates of Space and Time (1993), and, co-edited with R. A. Dodgshon, An Historical Geography of England and Wales (2nd edition 1990), and An Historical Geography of Europe (1998).