Her research and writing investigate the intersection of environmental history, the history of science and medicine, and ideas about the body in the early modern Atlantic world.
She applied the “Page 99 Test” to her new book, An Empire Transformed: Remolding Bodies and Landscapes in the Restoration Atlantic, and reported the following:
Page 99 begins with an assessment of claims made by a group called the Bedford Level Corporation in the late seventeenth century that they had successfully drained the fens of eastern England and had therefore earned their reward in the form of lands that had long been used communally by fen communities. But I quote a satirical ballad from the era to highlight the Corporation’s possible failures. The ballad references “drown[ed]” fenlands, suggesting the Corporation members had celebrated prematurely and had not earned the lands they had taken in reward for their incomplete work.Visit Kate Mulry's website.
I next describe how the Bedford Level Corporation was one iteration of a type of early modern English “projector” who sought investment and support for their drainage projects. These varied drainage “improvers” promised to make wetlands more accessible to travelers and officials. However, residents of those communities living in or near Irish bogs or English fenlands often valued the inaccessibility of wetland landscapes to outsiders. The final paragraph reiterates this point by gesturing to religious communities who had been drawn to the inaccessibility of the fen landscapes and had valued the isolation for centuries.
If readers were to open An Empire Transformed to page 99, they would have a pretty good feel for the topics and arguments covered in the chapter and the book as a whole.
Page 99 falls within a chapter that examines the efforts of a group of individuals, known as the Bedford Level Corporation, who sought to drain vast areas of the fenlands in eastern England in the seventeenth century. They claimed their drainage projects would benefit the residents of the fenlands by turning unhealthy wetlands into healthy and productive fields made ready for year-round cultivation.
Several topics covered in page 99 relate to the book in a few ways. First, this page focuses on the idea of “improvement” as one of the arguments made by a variety of Restoration officials, as well as Bedford Level Corporation members, to justify their drainage projects. They claimed their work would increase the value of the land by transforming it from wet to dry. This is a regular argument made by all kinds of drainage “improvers” to justify their projects and to receive support. Second, while the different chapters in this book cover a range of environmental improvement projects initiated during the English Restoration, two of the five chapters highlight projects of fen, swamp and wetland drainage, and contemporaries’ debates about how to control these unruly watery landscapes (and the potentially unruly people who lived in them). In other words, discussing drainage projects represent a significant portion of the book. Third, the page suggests that the meanings of landscapes were contested. Residents of the fens regularly resisted the projects and policies of “improvers” and other representatives of an expansive English government. Finally, the page suggests that the outcomes of seventeen-century improvement projects were far from certain. By highlighting a satirical ballad pointing out the Bedford Level Corporation drainage failures (and the return of “Captain floud”), readers are reminded that officials’ desires to transform domestic and colonial landscapes and assert authority over the residents of a far-flung and growing English empire were often unsuccessful.
What’s missing from this page, however, is a reference to drainage as a public health measure. One of the justifications offered by “improvers” was their claim that transforming lands they deemed unhealthy also made residents healthier. These claims about improving public health by transforming the landscape are central to the book but absent from page 99.
--Marshal Zeringue
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