Mark Thurner is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, History and Humanities at FLACSO-Ecuador, and Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Florida. He was Professor of Latin American Studies at the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London, until the Institute's forced closure in 2021. He is the author of History's Peru: The Poetics of Colonial and Postcolonial Historiography (2011) amongst numerous other publications. He is the editor of The First Wave of Decolonization (Routledge, 2019). Jorge Cąizares-Esguerra is the Alice Drysdale Sheffield Professor of History in the Department of History, University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Nature, Empire, and Nation: Explorations of the History of Science in the Iberian World (2006) amongst numerous other publications. He is editor of Entangled Empires: The Anglo-Iberian Atlantic, 1500-1830 (2018).
Summary note
"The Invention of Humboldt is a game-changing volume of essays by leading scholars of the Hispanic world that explodes many myths about Alexander von Humboldt and his world. Rather than 'follow in Humboldt's footsteps' this book outlines the new critical horizon of 'post-Humboldtian' Studies: the archaeology of all that lies buried under the Baron's epistemological footprint. Contrary to the popular image of Humboldt as a solitary 'adventurer' and 'hero of science' surrounded by New World nature, The Invention of Humboldt demonstrates that the Baron's opus and practice was largely derivative of the knowledge communities and archives of the Hispanic world. Although Humboldtian writing has invented a powerful cult that has served to erase the sources of his knowledge and practice, in truth Humboldt did not 'invent nature' nor did he pioneer global science: he was the beneficiary of Iberian natural science and globalization. Nor was Humboldt a pioneering, 'postcolonial' cultural relativist. Instead, his anthropological views of the Americas were Orientalist and historicist, and in most ways were less enlightened than those of his Creole contemporaries. This book will reshape the landscape of Humboldt scholarship. It is essential reading for all those interested in Alexander von Humboldt, the Hispanic American enlightenment, and the global history of science and knowledge"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Reproduction note
Electronic reproduction. London Available via World Wide Web.
Source of description
Description based upon online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed Jan 16th, 2023).
Contents
The Apotheosis of Humboldt during the Nineteenth Century / Leoncio López-Ocón
A Sense of Place: Early Modern Roots of Humboldt's Natural History Practices / Florike Egmond
Six Days on Tenerife: The Making of Humboldt's Tropical Antique / Peter Mason
Caldas and Humboldt in the Andes: Who Invented Biogeography? / Alberto Gómez Gutiérrez
An Archaeology of Mutis' Disappearing Gift to Humboldt / José Antonio Amaya
Incas, Pyramids and Amazons: Notes on Humboldt's Equatorial Encounters / Neil Safier
Humboldt's Magic Mountain / Juan Pimentel
Peruvian Desencuentro: Humboldt's Fog, Unanue's Light / Mark Thurner
Air in a Flask: The Mexican Making of Humboldt's Objects of Knowledge / Miruna Achim and Gabriela Goldin Marcovich
Humboldt's Misreading of the Mercantilist Face of New Spain / José Enrique Covarrubias
Bonpland's Cactus, Or Trafficking in Exotics and Ignorance / Irina Podgorny
Humboldt's Columbus, Or the Iberian Worlds that Humboldt Ignored / Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra.
ISBN
9781003231479 (electronic book)
1003231470
9781000814408 (electronic book : electronic book)
1000814408 (electronic book : electronic book)
9781000814507 (electronic book : EPUB)
1000814505 (electronic book : EPUB)
LCCN
2022031309
OCLC
1334653272
Doi
10.4324/9781003231479
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