IN HUMBOLDT'S SHADOW, a tragic history of German ethnology

220pp., maps, illus., hardback, d.w., First English Language Edition, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2021

ISBN: 9780691211145

First published in German in 2019 as Im Schatten Humboldts.

A history of the German ethnologists and adventurers who were inspired by Prussian explorer and polymath Alexander von Humboldt’s vision. It also covers the fate of The Berlin Ethnological Museum, where they hoped a unitary history of humanity might emerge.

Includes the chapter, "Benin Bronzes: Colonial questions".

"A rich and engaging scholarly account. In Humboldt's Shadow recovers the forgotten history of German ethnology and shows why it is relevant for us today." Sharon Macdonald, author of Memorylands: Heritage and Identity in Europe Today

"Expertly written and highly topical, this accessible and informative book provides a much-needed historical perspective on current predicaments surrounding the study of cultural material heritage and reminds anthropologists that their field was and should be in the interest of human understanding." Han F. Vermeulen, author of Before Boas: The Genesis of Ethnography and Ethnology in the German Enlightenment

H. Glenn Penny is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Kindred by Choice: Germans and American Indians since 1800 and Objects of Culture: Ethnology and Ethnographic Museums in Imperial Germany.