
Race, Science, and the Nation
Reconstructing the Ancient Past in Britain, France and Germany
Chris Manias(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 22. May 2013
Book
Hardback
316 pages
978-0-415-83299-1 (ISBN)
Description
Across the nineteenth century, scholars in Britain, France and the German lands sought to understand their earliest ancestors: the Germanic and Celtic tribes known from classical antiquity, and the newly discovered peoples of prehistory. New fields - philology, archeology and anthropology - interacted, breaking down languages, unearthing artifacts, measuring skulls and recording the customs of "savage" analogues. This was a decidedly national process: disciplines institutionalized on national levels, and their findings seen to have deep implications for the origins of the nation and its "racial composition." However, this operated within broader currents. The wide spread of material and novelty of the methods meant that these approaches formed connections across Europe and beyond, even while national rivalries threatened to tear these networks apart.
Race, Science and the Nation follows this tension, offering a simultaneously comparative, cross-national and multi-disciplinary history of the scholarly reconstruction of European prehistory. As well as showing how interaction between disciplines was key to their formation, it makes arguments of keen relevance to studies of racial thought and nationalism. It shows these researches often worked against attempts to present the chaotic multi-layered ancient eras as times of mythic origin. Instead, they argued that the modern nations of Europe were not only diverse, but were products of long processes of social development and "racial" fusion. This book therefore brings to light a formerly unstudied motif of nineteenth-century national consciousness, showing how intellectuals in the era of nation-building themselves drove an idea of their nations being "constructed" from a useable past.
Race, Science and the Nation follows this tension, offering a simultaneously comparative, cross-national and multi-disciplinary history of the scholarly reconstruction of European prehistory. As well as showing how interaction between disciplines was key to their formation, it makes arguments of keen relevance to studies of racial thought and nationalism. It shows these researches often worked against attempts to present the chaotic multi-layered ancient eras as times of mythic origin. Instead, they argued that the modern nations of Europe were not only diverse, but were products of long processes of social development and "racial" fusion. This book therefore brings to light a formerly unstudied motif of nineteenth-century national consciousness, showing how intellectuals in the era of nation-building themselves drove an idea of their nations being "constructed" from a useable past.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
18 s/w Abbildungen, 18 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder
18 Halftones, black and white; 18 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
544 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-415-83299-1 (9780415832991)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Chris Manias
Race, Science, and the Nation
Reconstructing the Ancient Past in Britain, France and Germany
Book
03/2016
1st Edition
Routledge
€56.00
Shipment within 10-20 days

Chris Manias
Race, Science, and the Nation
Reconstructing the Ancient Past in Britain, France and Germany
E-Book
06/2013
1st Edition
Routledge
€55.49
Available for download

Chris Manias
Race, Science, and the Nation
Reconstructing the Ancient Past in Britain, France and Germany
E-Book
06/2013
1st Edition
Routledge
€55.49
Available for download
Person
Chris Manias is Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Manchester.
Content
Introduction 1. Unveiling the Ancestry of Peoples: Tradition, Language and Ethnology, 1800-1860 2. Unearthing Our Forefathers: The Growth of Provincial Archaeology, 1830-1860 3. The Limits of History: Defining Nations, Races and Peoples, 1820-1850 4. Building the Science of Man: National Anthropology and the Ancient Past, 1850-1870 5. Locating the Peoples of Prehistory: Geology, Archaeology and Anthropology, 1840-1870 6. The Fracturing of Common Origins: The Nationalization of the Anthropological Past, 1871-1900 7. Tension and Diffusion: The Racial and Cultural Sciences, 1890-1914. Conclusion.