Description: A series of in-depth accounts of 'the view from above' in shaping notions of territory, security and conflict.
Review Quotes: "Packed with historical knowledge and theoretical insights, this collection opens our eyes to the metaphors and technologies embedded in the most ordinary expressions such as above, below, depth, flight, earth, and sky. In chapter after chapter, the aerial view presents itself not only as a militaristic space and a geopolitical theatre but also and above all as a conceptual event in modernity."--Rey Chow, author of Entanglements, or Transmedial Thinking about Capture
"Being above using aircraft to loiter within the atmosphere or on the edge of space has long been recognised as a definitive means of gaining military and strategic advantage over those bound by the earth's surface. The last century has witnessed countless episodes of annihilation and killing by states and militaries from up in the sky. But how can we approach the deep connections between verticality, violence and war? From Above a dazzling and definitive collection provides the answers. Bringing together the very best thinkers from Geography, Cultural Studies, Art Theory and Political Science, the result is an extraordinary and searing book. Here, for the first time, is a volume which fully excavates how targeting and killing from above was invented, generalised and rendered completely normal in the past century and a half. A must-read for anyone concerned with the nature of contemporary political violence." --Stephen Graham, Newcastle University"Bombings and assassinations meet with surveys and cartography in this collection of critically engaged essays on the combined force of aerial knowledge and aerial power. Offering a much-needed counter to the official line on air power, the volume spells out the extent to which reconnaissance and violence operate in tandem from above." -- Mark Neocleous, Professor of the Critique of Political Economy, Politics and History, Brunel University