German science in the age of empire : enterprise, opportunity and the Schlagintweit brothers / Moritz von Brescius.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brescius, Moritz von, author.

Series:

Science in history (Cambridge University Press)

Science in history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Schlagintweit, Adolph, 1829-1857.

Schlagintweit, Adolph.

Schlagintweit-Sakünlünski, Hermann von, 1826-1882.

Schlagintweit-Sakünlünski, Hermann von.

Schlagintweit, Robert von, 1833-1885.

Schlagintweit, Robert von.

East India Company--History--19th century.

East India Company.

Scientific expeditions--India, North--History--19th century.

Scientific expeditions.

Scientific expeditions--Asia, Central--History--19th century.

India--History--Sepoy Rebellion, 1857-1858.

India.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 414 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Summary:

This seminal study explores the national, imperial and indigenous interests at stake in a major survey expedition undertaken by the German Schlagintweit brothers, while in the employ of the East India Company, through South and Central Asia in the 1850s. It argues that German scientists, lacking in this period a formal empire of their own, seized the opportunity presented by other imperial systems to observe, record, collect and loot manuscripts, maps, and museological artefacts that shaped European understandings of the East. Drawing on archival research in three continents, von Brescius vividly explores the dynamics and conflicts of transcultural exploration beyond colonial frontiers in Asia. Analysing the contested careers of these imperial outsiders, he reveals significant changes in the culture of gentlemanly science, the violent negotiation of scientific authority in a transnational arena, and the transition from Humboldtian enquiry to a new disciplinary order. This book offers a new understanding of German science and its role in shaping foreign empires, and provides a revisionist account of the questions of authority and of authenticity in reportage from distant sites.

Contents:

Empires of opportunity

Entering the company service: Anglo-German networks and the Schlagintweit mission to Asia

Imperial recruitment and transnational science in India

An ingenious management of patronage communities

Making science in the field: a Eurasian expedition on the move

The inner life of a European expedition: cultural encounters and multiple hierarchies

Contested exploration and the Indian rebellion: the fateful year 1857

The Schlagintweit collections, India museums, and the tensions of German museology

Asymmetric reputations: memories of exploration and German colonial enterprise.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 01 Mar 2019).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-108-61752-2

1-108-57956-6

1-108-63116-9