This article analyzes the making of a novel consciousness of historicity in Germany around 1800, one that regarded mountains as vaults of a shared and palpable past. Revisiting a paleontological debate about the origin of large mammal bones found in caves, it reads the science of Johann Christian Rosenmüller (1771–1820) as a social and political accomplishment. By attributing the fossils to an indigenous "cave bear," and communicating an elite scientific debate to a lay audience, Rosenmüller presented an account of Germany's primordial past that fed seamlessly into its present, nurturing an idea of nationhood grounded in the (sub)soil.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Mattson, Greggor;
(2014)
Nation-State Science: Lappology and Sweden's Ethnoracial Purity
(/isis/citation/CBB001201852/)
Chapter
Siegert, Reinhart;
(2013)
Scientific “Patriotism” between Self-Importance, Self-Recommendation and Camouflage. The Enlightenment Requirement of Public Benefit as Reflected in the Title Pages and Prefaces of Popular Works by Scholars
(/isis/citation/CBB001202277/)
Article
Considine, John;
(2014)
John Jamieson, Franz Passow, and the Double Invention of Lexicography on Historical Principles
(/isis/citation/CBB001201303/)
Article
Maddalena Cataldi;
(2016)
Inventing the Menton Man. Rivière's Discovery as Reflected in the French Media
(/isis/citation/CBB346994538/)
Book
Juliana Adelman;
(2009)
Communities of Science in Nineteenth-Century Ireland
(/isis/citation/CBB484642492/)
Book
Jason D. Hansen;
(2015)
Mapping the Germans: Statistical Science, Cartography, and the Visualization of the German Nation, 1848-1914
(/isis/citation/CBB770225246/)
Article
Nicolescu, Valentin Quintus;
(2014)
Nature and Identity in the Construction of the Romanian Concept of Nation
(/isis/citation/CBB001421407/)
Article
Sachse, Carola;
(2006)
Von Männern, Frauen und Hunden. Der Streit um die Vivisektion im Deutschland des 19. Jahrhunderts
(/isis/citation/CBB001022227/)
Article
Raj, Kapil;
(2000)
Colonial Encounters and the Forging of New Knowledge and National Identities: Great Britain and India, 1760--1850
(/isis/citation/CBB000671218/)
Chapter
Penman, Leigh T. I.;
(2011)
The Wicked and the Fair: Changing Perceptions of Terra Australis through the Prism of the Batavia Shipreck (1629)
(/isis/citation/CBB001201516/)
Book
Ross J. Wilson;
(2017)
Natural History: Heritage, Place and Politics
(/isis/citation/CBB381161984/)
Chapter
Kurtz, Joachim;
(2014)
Disciplining the National Essence: Liu Shipei and the Reinvention of Ancient China's Intellectual History
(/isis/citation/CBB001213954/)
Article
Takeda, Junko Thérèse;
(2014)
Global Insects: Silkworms, Sericulture, and Statecraft in Napoleonic France and Tokugawa Japan
(/isis/citation/CBB001201419/)
Book
Ziolkowski, Theodore;
(2004)
Clio the Romantic Muse: Historicizing the Faculties in Germany
(/isis/citation/CBB000471282/)
Chapter
Spiller, James;
(2013)
Nostalgia for the Right Stuff: Astronauts and Public Anxiety about a Changing Nation
(/isis/citation/CBB001201395/)
Chapter
Nielsen, Kristian H.;
(2012)
Expedition “Live”: Science, Media, and Politics on the Galathea 3 Expedition, 2006--2007
(/isis/citation/CBB001210272/)
Book
Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste;
(2012)
L'apocalypse joveuse: Une histoire du risque technologique
(/isis/citation/CBB001500358/)
Article
Uekōtter, Frank;
(2014)
Why Panaceas Work: Recasting Science, Knowledge, and Fertilizer Interests in German Agriculture
(/isis/citation/CBB001320830/)
Book
Matthew D. Mingus;
(2017)
Remapping Modern Germany after National Socialism, 1945-1961
(/isis/citation/CBB671739095/)
Article
Doel, Ronald E.;
Hoffmann, Dieter;
Krementsov, Nikolai;
(2005)
National States and International Science: A Comparative History of International Science Congresses in Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia, and Cold War United States
(/isis/citation/CBB000610599/)
Be the first to comment!