The Meaning of Travel

Subtitled rather simply 'philosophers abroad', this is a delightful and engaging book about the deeper meaning of travel from the 16th century to the present day. It is framed by the author's journey to Alaska from Groningen in the Netherlands, where she had been studying, but also at each end of the book, by quirky and entertaining historical quotations related to travelling well and returning home. The immediate impression of travel is an encounter with the unfamiliar, with otherness. The age of discovery and then Empire began in the very late 15^th century, captured in maps tend to put the the originating country at the centre. The author uses the lives of such figures as Francis Bacon, Descartes and Locke (who possessed 200 travel books) to raise philosophical issues, for instance the contrast between the last two philosophers with respect to innate ideas. The rise of science and the incorporation of the Royal Society had a considerable impact on approaches to travel. The chapter on the Grand Tour undertaken by young gentlemen of means from 1670 onwards is particularly fascinating (my own great grandfather undertook this from 1841-1843). Adam Smith's phrase referring to 'the most frivolous dissipation' on the Tour is not without foundation, not only in terms of drinking and gambling, but also sexual pleasure that not infrequently led to sexually-transmitted diseases. The author quotes some instructive guidance given by Newton to a young fellow embarking on a journey, and describes the experiences of Rousseau as well as the tourist initiatives undertaken by Thomas Cook from 1841. Missing from the discussion is any mention of pilgrimage, which goes back much further and could have informed the treatment of the emergence of tourism.

A chapter on travel writing draws on Thomas More's Utopia and Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish (Duchess of Newcastle) who was by all accounts a remarkable and colourful character. The author shows how Henry More's philosophy of space introduced a new understanding of infinite in nature, represented by mountains and oceans – 'aesthetics of the infinite'. Edmund Burke's 1757 book on the sublime and the beautiful provides the context for a discussion of these concepts, also applied respectively to men and women, and leading in to a consideration of whether travel is a male concept. Emerson and Thoreau furnish the background for a chapter on solitude and wilderness philosophy with some beautiful extracts and reflections. A new issue currently arising is the ethics of doom tourism, where, paradoxically, the process of deterioration is exacerbated by tourists themselves – 'amazing places to visit before they vanish.' Other writers who could have been mentioned in the course of the book are Goethe (The Italian Journey), Alfred Russel Wallace and his collection of specimens from South America and Borneo, and the fashion for Alpine walking reading parties described by Sir Leslie Stephen in the 1860s. These, however, are minor quibbles in relation to a highly enjoyable and stimulating read - definitely a good book to take with you on your travels.