University of Chicago Press, 2008 Paper: 978-0-226-73149-0 Library of Congress Classification Q143.H9R87 2008 Dewey Decimal Classification 509.2
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) is one of the most celebrated figures of late-modern science, famous for his work in physical geography, botanical geography, and climatology, and his role as one of the first great popularizers of the sciences. His momentous accomplishments have intrigued German biographers from the Prussian era to the fall of the Berlin wall, all of whom configured and reconfigured Humboldt’s life according to the sensibilities of the day.
This volume, the first metabiography of the great scientist, traces Humboldt’s biographical identities through Germany’s collective past to shed light on the historical instability of our scientific heroes.
“Rupke’s study . . . will doubtless become a standard reference for the Humboldt industry and for writers of scientific metabiographies to come.”—Isis
“Engaging. . . . Rupke’s meticulous analysis is fascinating on many scores.”—Times Higher Education Supplement (UK)
“A study borne of considerable scholarship and one with important methodological implications for historians of geography.”—Charles W. J. Withers, Progress in Human Geography
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Nicolaas A. Rupke is professor of the history of science and director of the Institute for the History of Science at Göttingen, Germany. He is the author of several books, including Richard Owen: Victorian Naturalist.
REVIEWS
“Rupke is right to draw attention to the fact that shifting biographical traditions make one person have many lives, and his metabiography helps us to appreciate the historical instability of any scientific life, not just one as complex as Humboldt’s. . . . Rupke has given us a Humboldt just right for our own less certain and more self-conscious times—fractured, multiple and unstable.”
— Steven Shapin, Nature
“Rupke’s study . . . will doubtless become a standard reference for the Humboldt industry and for writers of scientific metabiographies to come.”
— Isis
“Engaging. . . . Rupke’s meticulous analysis is fascinating on many scores.”
— John Meurig Thomas, Times Higher Education Supplement (UK)
“A study borne of considerable scholarship and one with important methodological implications for historians of geography.”
— Charles W. J. Withers, Progress in Human Geography
“The book examines how Humboldt has been portrayed in the biographical literature by his fellow Germans. . . . With each major shift in politics, a new image of Humboldt was created. . . . A marvelously fascinating book.”
— Annals of Science
“A detailed, rewarding, and well-illustrated account.”
— British Journal for the History of Science
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Illustrations
Prefaces
Chronology of Alexander von Humboldt's Life
Introduction: The Several Lives of Alexander von Humboldt
The Humboldt Phenomenon
Appropriating Humboldt
Fashioning Himself
Chapter 1: Liberal Democrat before the Empire Period
National Hero of the "Forty-Eighters"
The Long Shadow of Bismarck Kosmos and Volksbilding Literary Face of German Science
Subversive Democrat at the Prussian Court
Chapter 2: The Wilhelmian and Weimar Kultur Chauvinist
Identity Changes Kultur Nationalist
Special Envoy to Latin America
Chapter 3: The Aryan Supremacist of National Socialism
Nazification Kosmos and German Idealism
Certification of Aryan Purity
Friend of Faupel
Chapter 4: East Germany's Antislavery Marxist
The Academy's Socialist
The GDR as Humboldt's Rightful Heir
Denazification — East
Nearly a Miner
Between Forster and Marx
The Great Abolitionist
"Our Man in Havana"
Chapter 5: West Germany's Cosmopolitan Friend of the Jews
Westernization
Fraternity Member
Denazification — West
Cosmopolitan Liberal
Friend of the Jews
"... Almost an American"
Chapter 6: Today's Pioneer of Globalization
Free Market Victorious
Globalization "Wessie"
A Green Humboldt
Anglification
Postmodernist Cracks
Outing Humboldt
Conclusion: Humboldt Forever
Humboldt and Germany
Institutional Embeddedness
Political Regimes and Biographical Truths
Metabiographical Reflections
List of Institutions and Political Parties
A Note on Citation
Printed Sources
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
University of Chicago Press, 2008 Paper: 978-0-226-73149-0
Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) is one of the most celebrated figures of late-modern science, famous for his work in physical geography, botanical geography, and climatology, and his role as one of the first great popularizers of the sciences. His momentous accomplishments have intrigued German biographers from the Prussian era to the fall of the Berlin wall, all of whom configured and reconfigured Humboldt’s life according to the sensibilities of the day.
This volume, the first metabiography of the great scientist, traces Humboldt’s biographical identities through Germany’s collective past to shed light on the historical instability of our scientific heroes.
“Rupke’s study . . . will doubtless become a standard reference for the Humboldt industry and for writers of scientific metabiographies to come.”—Isis
“Engaging. . . . Rupke’s meticulous analysis is fascinating on many scores.”—Times Higher Education Supplement (UK)
“A study borne of considerable scholarship and one with important methodological implications for historians of geography.”—Charles W. J. Withers, Progress in Human Geography
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Nicolaas A. Rupke is professor of the history of science and director of the Institute for the History of Science at Göttingen, Germany. He is the author of several books, including Richard Owen: Victorian Naturalist.
REVIEWS
“Rupke is right to draw attention to the fact that shifting biographical traditions make one person have many lives, and his metabiography helps us to appreciate the historical instability of any scientific life, not just one as complex as Humboldt’s. . . . Rupke has given us a Humboldt just right for our own less certain and more self-conscious times—fractured, multiple and unstable.”
— Steven Shapin, Nature
“Rupke’s study . . . will doubtless become a standard reference for the Humboldt industry and for writers of scientific metabiographies to come.”
— Isis
“Engaging. . . . Rupke’s meticulous analysis is fascinating on many scores.”
— John Meurig Thomas, Times Higher Education Supplement (UK)
“A study borne of considerable scholarship and one with important methodological implications for historians of geography.”
— Charles W. J. Withers, Progress in Human Geography
“The book examines how Humboldt has been portrayed in the biographical literature by his fellow Germans. . . . With each major shift in politics, a new image of Humboldt was created. . . . A marvelously fascinating book.”
— Annals of Science
“A detailed, rewarding, and well-illustrated account.”
— British Journal for the History of Science
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Illustrations
Prefaces
Chronology of Alexander von Humboldt's Life
Introduction: The Several Lives of Alexander von Humboldt
The Humboldt Phenomenon
Appropriating Humboldt
Fashioning Himself
Chapter 1: Liberal Democrat before the Empire Period
National Hero of the "Forty-Eighters"
The Long Shadow of Bismarck Kosmos and Volksbilding Literary Face of German Science
Subversive Democrat at the Prussian Court
Chapter 2: The Wilhelmian and Weimar Kultur Chauvinist
Identity Changes Kultur Nationalist
Special Envoy to Latin America
Chapter 3: The Aryan Supremacist of National Socialism
Nazification Kosmos and German Idealism
Certification of Aryan Purity
Friend of Faupel
Chapter 4: East Germany's Antislavery Marxist
The Academy's Socialist
The GDR as Humboldt's Rightful Heir
Denazification — East
Nearly a Miner
Between Forster and Marx
The Great Abolitionist
"Our Man in Havana"
Chapter 5: West Germany's Cosmopolitan Friend of the Jews
Westernization
Fraternity Member
Denazification — West
Cosmopolitan Liberal
Friend of the Jews
"... Almost an American"
Chapter 6: Today's Pioneer of Globalization
Free Market Victorious
Globalization "Wessie"
A Green Humboldt
Anglification
Postmodernist Cracks
Outing Humboldt
Conclusion: Humboldt Forever
Humboldt and Germany
Institutional Embeddedness
Political Regimes and Biographical Truths
Metabiographical Reflections
List of Institutions and Political Parties
A Note on Citation
Printed Sources
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE