Book

Rupke, Nicolaas A., author.

Alexander von Humboldt : a metabiography / Nicolaas A. Rupke.

University of Chicago Press paperback ed.

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2008.

316 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Alexander von Humboldt is one of the most celebrated figures of late-modern science, famous for his work in physical geography, botanical geography and climatology. This volume traces Humboldt's biographical identities through Germany's collective past to shed light on the historical instability of our scientific heroes.

Humboldt, Alexander von, 1769-1859.

Scientists -- Germany -- Biography.

Biographies.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-301) and index.

Chronology of Alexander von Humboldt's life -- Introduction: The several lives of Alexander von Humboldt -- The Humboldt phenomenon -- Appropriating Humboldt -- Fashioning himself -- 1. Liberal democrat before the empire period -- National hero of the "forty-eighters" -- The long shadow of Bismarck -- Kosmos and Volksbildung -- Literary face of German science -- Subversive democrat at the Prussian court -- 2. The Wilhelmian and Weimar Kultur chauvinist -- Identity changes -- Darwinian monist -- Kultur nationalist -- Special envoy to Latin America -- 3. The Aryan supremacist of national socialism -- Nazification -- Kosmos and German idealism -- Certification of Aryan purity -- Friend of Faupel -- 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" -- 5. West Germany's cosmopolitan friend of the Jews -- Westernization -- Fraternity member -- Denazification -- West -- Cosmopolitan liberal -- Friend of the Jews -- " ... almost an American" -- 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.

Table of contents

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description

2008001122

9780226731490

0226731499

176980274

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509.2 Rupke