The imagined empire: Balloon enlightenments in revolutionary Europe by Mi Gyung Kim (review)

Publication Type

Book Review

Publication Date

4-2019

Abstract

The Imagined Empire is a welcome addition to histories of early ballooning that have flourished in the past decade. Drawing from a rich theoretical toolbox, Kim ambitiously "aims at an archaeology of mass silence, a genealogy of the mass public, and a material geography of European Enlightenment to uncover how the flying machine—both imagined and real—stirred utopian visions and patriotic sentiments in revolutionary Europe" (p. 8). In doing so, she presents a survey of early European ascents, a dense analysis of the indeterminacy of scientific artifacts, and something that could cheekily be called the aerostatic origins of the French Revolution.

Keywords

ballooning, Enlightenment, French Revolution, public sphere, history of technology

Discipline

Political Science

Research Areas

Political Science

Publication

Technology and Culture

Volume

60

Issue

2

First Page

628

Last Page

630

ISSN

0040-165X

Identifier

10.1353/tech.2019.0049

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