Cosmos and Colonialism

Rex Clark is a Lecturer in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He studied at the Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, researching the history of travel guides and travel discourse in the eighteenth century and focusing on Friedrich Nicolai, Georg Forster, and Alexander von Humboldt. He has published articles on digital media, postcolonial travel theory, and the reception of Alexander von Humboldt.

“[The essays] reflect the amazing breadth of interests of the German scientist, emphasizing in particular his travels in and commentary (scientific and political) on South America. The[y] cover a period of more than 200 years and have relevance not only for historians of science, but also for scholars of German and French literature, Latin American studies, travel literature, philosophy, and history.”  ·  Choice“There is no doubt that these volumes combine the most comprehensive collection of texts for the colorful and shifting history of Humboldt's fame...By laboriously assembling, and in many cases translating, an impressive number of texts from remote corners of libraries and collections, Clark and Lubrich have provided a valuable service to scholars and the general public. In this process they have filled a neglected space in the literature about Humboldt. They have pointed to the issues of colonialism and integrated Latin American voices and into the dialogue about Humboldt, a dialogue that concerns primarily Latin America. the world that Humboldt treated so exhaustively in histwenty-nine volumes. “  ·  Yearbook of German-American Studies

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsEditorial methodIntroduction: Analyzing HumboldtChapter 1. Letter to Christian Gottfried Körner 1797Friedrich Schiller Chapter 2. Thoughts on the Principal Events of the French Revolution 1817Germaine de Staël Chapter 3. On Monsieur de Humboldt’s Voyage 1820François-René ChateaubriandChapter 4. Conversations with Goethe 1827Johann Peter EckermannChapter 5. Thoughts on Modern Literature 1840Ralph Waldo EmersonChapter 6. Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism 1845Domingo Faustino SarmientoChapter 7. Aesthetics or The Science of Beauty 1847Friedrich Theodor VischerChapter 8. The Napoleon of Science 1850Henry Theodore TuckermanChapter 9. Aesthetics of the Ugly 1853Karl RosenkranzChapter 10. Eulogy 1859Louis AgassizChapter 11. Letter to Ludmilla Assing 1860Gottfried KellerChapter 12. The Culture of the Renaissance in Italy 1860Jacob Burckhardt Chapter 13. Walking 1862Henry David ThoreauChapter 14. The True Character of Humboldt 1869Karl HeinzenChapter 15. The Descent of Man 1871Charles DarwinChapter 16. Honoré de Balzac 1875Henry JamesChapter 17. The Shortcomings of the Style 1877Friedrich NietzscheChapter 18. Rebellion in the Backland 1902Euclides da CunhaChapter 19. Vision of Anáhuac (1519) 1915Alfonso ReyesChapter 20. The Dry Putsch 1922Kurt TucholskyChapter 21. In the Steps of Humboldt 1923José Antonio Ramos SucreChapter 22. The German as a Human Symptom 1923Robert MusilChapter 23. Result of Perspectives 1930Gottfried BennChapter 24. Introduction to the “Political Essay on the Island of Cuba” 1930Fernando OrtizChapter 25. Commemoration of Alexander von Humboldt 1934Karl BlascheChapter 26. Cuban Counterpoint. Tobacco and Sugar 1940Fernando Ortiz Chapter 27. Humboldt, Political and Private 1942Egon Erwin KischChapter 28. The Scientific Conquest 1942Egon Erwin KischChapter 29. The Dispute of the New World 1955Antonello GerbiChapter 30. Memory of Humboldt 1958José Lezama LimaChapter 31. The Principle of Hope 1959Ernst BlochChapter 32. The Invention of America 1961Edmundo O’GormanChapter 33. Preliminary Study to the “Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain” 1965Juan A. Ortega y MedinaChapter 34. The City of Columns 1970Alejo CarpentierChapter 35. Humboldt and the Rehabilitation of a Continent 1970Hugo LoetscherChapter 36. LSD: My Problem Child 1979Albert HofmannChapter 37. The Memory of Humboldt Lives in the Peoples’ Struggle 1981Erich HoneckerChapter 38. A Book on Nature as a Book of Nature 1981Hans BlumenbergChapter 39. Message from the Horsehead 1981Peter SchneiderChapter 40. Blackholes of Historiography 1989Peter HacksChapter 41. No One Wanders under Palm Trees Unpunished. Goethe and Humboldt 1991Hans Christoph BuchChapter 42. Alexander von Humboldt and the Reinvention of America 1992Mary Louise PrattChapter 43. 'The Second Columbus?’ 1995Eoin BourkeChapter 44. The German Columbus 1997Susanne ZantopChapter 45. The Graves of the Humboldts 1998Hans BlumenbergChapter 46. Like Bronze Statues of Antiquity 2000Oliver LubrichChapter 47. Walking Backward to the Future 2000Benigno TrigoChapter 48. Concepts of Culture on the Orinoco 2002Rex ClarkChapter 49. The Art of Travel 2002Alain de BottonChapter 50.  Opening of the Humboldt Exhibit in Madrid 2005Kerstin MüllerSource BibliographyIndex