Richard Hakluyt, best known as editor of The Principal Navigations (1589; expanded 1598-1600), was a key figure in promoting early modern English colonial and commercial expansion. His work spanned every area of English activity and aspiration, from Muscovy to America, from Africa to the Near East, and India to China and Japan, providing up-to-date information and establishing an ideological framework for English rivalries with Spain, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands. This interdisciplinary collection of 24 essays brings together the best international scholarship on Hakluyt, revising our picture of the influences on his work, his editorial practice and his impact.

Daniel Carey is Professor of English in the School of Humanities at the National University of Ireland, Galway, Republic of Ireland; Claire Jowitt is Professor of English at the University of Southampton, UK.

Introduction; I: Hakluyt in Context; 1: Hakluyt's London; 2: From the 'History of Travayle' to the History of Travel Collections; II: Early Modern Travel Collections; 3: A World Seen Through Another's Eyes; 4: Three Tales of the New World; 5: Hakluyt in France; 6: 'Honour to our Nation' 1; 7: Richard Hakluyt and the Visual World of Early Modern Travel Narratives; III: Editorial Practices; 8: '[T]ouching the State of The Country of Guiana, and Whether It Were Fit to Be Planted By The English'; 9: Richard Hakluyt's Two Indias; 10: Forming The Captivity of Thomas Saunders; 11: Framing 'The English Nation'; 12: 'The Strange and Wonderfull Discoverie of Russia'; IV: Allegiances and Ideologies; 13: 'We (Upon Peril of My Life) Shall Make the Spaniard Ridiculous To All Europe'; 14: Balance of Power and Freedom of the Seas; 15: Richard Hakluyt and the Demands of Pietas Patriae; 16: 'To Deduce a Colonie'; 17: Hakluyt's Multiple Faiths; V: Hakluyt; 18: 'His Dark Materials'; 19: 'To Pot Straight Way we Goe'; 20: Hakluyt, Purchas, and the Romance of Virginia *; 21: 'Accidentall Restraints' 1; 22: Hakluyt's Oceans; 23: Hakluyt's Legacy; Coda; 24: The Legacy of Richard Hakluyt