This book presents the first in-depth examination of the relationship between the theories of British political economists and travel accounts. It employs tools from cultural historians to examine how political economists and others attempted to explain differences in progress and civilization, and racial, status, and gender differences between peoples during the period 1750-1850.

The book also draws on the histories of observation and objectivity to examine how British political economists pursued what T.R. Malthus called "authenticated facts" from overseas, as they struggled to...