`Headrick's wide reading of the secondary literatures is evident in his accounts of the global shipping industry and of Hong Kong's water supply and sanitation, in his reading of hydraulic imperialism in Egypt, in his discussion of technical education in West Africa and in his commentary on economic botany and the tropical plantations of Empire ... this is a very valuable book indeed. Some of the most important structures of the global formation between 1850-1940 are very clearly set before us and their interconnections rightly emphasized.'Journal of Historical Geography