A multidisciplinary exploration of the history of the Andaman Islands, blending history, sociology and anthropology.

1. Introduction; Part I. Contentious Landscapes: 2. Improving visions, troubled landscapes: the legacies of colonial Ferrargunj; 3. Entangled struggles, contested histories: the Second World War and after; 4. The making of a 'rhizomatic' landscape: place, space and the politics of memory in the Andamanese Islands; Part II. Affective Landscapes: 5. The Andaman local born: history, identity and convict descent; 6. Dwelling in fluid spaces: the Matuas of the Andaman Islands; 7. In pursuit of fireflies: the poetics and politics of 'lightscapes' in the Jarawa forests; Part III. Imagined Landscapes: 8. Visual representations of the penal colony; 9. Endangered landscapes, dream destinations: the shifting frames of 'tropicality' in the Andaman Islands; 10. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Clare Anderson is Professor of History at the University of Leicester. She has written widely on the history of penal transportation, including most recently Subaltern Lives: Biographies of Colonialism in the Indian Ocean World, 1790-1920 (Cambridge, 2012).