Hurley, Andrew Wright (Author)
Camden House
Physical Details: 356
Language: English
After the renowned Prussian scientist and explorer Ludwig Leichhardt left the Australian frontier in 1848 on an expedition to cross the continent, he disappeared without a trace. Andrew Hurley's book complicates that view by undertaking an afterlife biography of "the Humboldt of Australia." Although Leichhardt's remains were never located, he has been sought and textually "found" many times over, particularly in Australia and Germany. He remains a significant presence, a highly productive ghost who continues to "haunt" culture.Leichhardt has been employed for all sorts of political purposes. In imperial Germany, he was a symbol of pure science, but also a bolster for colonialism. In the 20th century, he became a Nazi icon, a proto-socialist, the model for the protagonist of Nobel laureate Patrick White's famous novel Voss, as well as a harbinger of multiculturalism. He has also been put to useby Australian Indigenous cultures. Engaging Leichhardt's ghosts and those who have sought him yields a fascinating case study of German entanglement in British colonialism in Australia. It also shows how figures from the colonialpast feature in German and Australian social memory and serve present-day purposes. In an abstract sense, this book uses Leichhardt to explore what happens when we maintain an open stance to the ghosts of the past.Andrew Wright Hurley is Associate Professor in German Studies at the University of Technology Sydney. His book Into the Groove: Popular Music and Contemporary German Fiction was published by Camden House in 2015.Table of ContentsIntroductionPART IDiscovering, Mourning and Honoring Leichhardt between Australia and German-Speaking Europe, 1848-1858Ferdinand von Mueller, the "Ladies Committee" and German-Australian Seekers of LeichhardtTaking Leichhardt Home to Germany with Georg von NeumayerBridgePART 2An Interwar Lull, or When Leichhardt Was Found as a "friend of the Aborigine"?Nazi LeichhardtLeichhardt the Cold WarriorLeichhardt Explodes, with No End in SightNotesWorks CitedIndex
...MoreReview Hilary Howes (2020) Review of "Ludwig Leichhardt's Ghosts: The Strange Career of a Traveling Myth". Historical Records of Australian Science (pp. 64-65).
Similar Citations
Book
Leichhardt, Ludwig;
Roderick, Fensham John;
(2013)
The Leichhardt Papers: Reflections on His Life and Legacy
(/isis/citation/CBB001214370/)
Article
Lewis, Darrell;
(2006)
The Fate of Leichhardt
(/isis/citation/CBB000610087/)
Article
Stephens, Matthew;
(2007)
From Lost Property to Explorer's Relics: The Rediscovery of the Personal Library of Ludwig Leichhardt
(/isis/citation/CBB000850001/)
Article
Thomas A. Darragh;
(2018)
Ludwig Leichhardt: Four Previously Unknown Letters to John Nicholson and the Involvement of Ferdinand von Mueller in Publishing Leichhardt's Letters
(/isis/citation/CBB691363121/)
Book
Leichhardt, Ludwig;
Darragh, Thomas;
Alwynneensham, Roderick John;
(2013)
The Leichhardt Diaries: Early Travels in Australia during 1842--1844
(/isis/citation/CBB001214369/)
Article
Schröder, Wilfried;
(2002)
Erhard Eylmann: Pioneer der Australienforschung
(/isis/citation/CBB000340306/)
Book
Duyker, Edward;
(2003)
Citizen Labillardière: A Naturalist's Life in Revolution and Exploration (1755--1834)
(/isis/citation/CBB000350418/)
Book
Fornasiero, F. J.;
Monteath, Peter;
West-Sooby, John;
(2004)
Encountering Terra Australis: The Australian Voyages of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders
(/isis/citation/CBB001033762/)
Book
Macqueen, Andy;
(2010)
Frederick Robert D'Arcy: Colonial Surveyor, Explorer and Artist, c. 1809--1875
(/isis/citation/CBB001033764/)
Chapter
Oldroyd, D.;
(2007)
In the Footsteps of Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (1792--1855): Soldier, Surveyor, Explorer, Geologist, and Probably the First Person to Compile Geological Maps in Australia
(/isis/citation/CBB000951548/)
Book
McCrory, Donald;
(2010)
Nature's Interpreter: The Life and Times of Alexander von Humboldt
(/isis/citation/CBB001023124/)
Book
Andrea Wulf;
(2019)
The adventures of Alexander Von Humboldt
(/isis/citation/CBB213038813/)
Article
Quilty, Patrick G.;
Lugg, Desmond J.;
(2013)
Phillip Garth Law 1912--2010
(/isis/citation/CBB001211872/)
Book
Hains, Brigid;
(2002)
The Ice and the Inland: Mawson, Flynn, and the Myth of the Frontier
(/isis/citation/CBB000350420/)
Article
Anthony R. Bean;
(2018)
The Life and Botany of Edward Macarthur Bowman (1826–1872)
(/isis/citation/CBB759231811/)
Article
Mayer, Wolf;
(2009)
The Geological Work of the Baudin Expedition in Australia (1801--1803): The Mineralogists, the Discoveries and the Legacy
(/isis/citation/CBB000932615/)
Article
Hilary Howes;
(2019)
Lothar Becker’s Contributions to Anthropology
(/isis/citation/CBB428689866/)
Article
Moore, D. T.;
(2002)
A Synopsis of Dated Entries in the Biological Collecting Notes from Eastern and Northern Australia Made by Robert Brown (1773--1858) on the Investigator Voyage of 1801--1805
(/isis/citation/CBB000740306/)
Article
Sara Maroske;
Thomas A. Darragh;
(2016)
F. Mueller, ‘The Murray-scrub, Sketched Botanically’, 1850: A Humboldtian Description of Mallee Vegetation
(/isis/citation/CBB799976214/)
Book
Jean Fornasiero;
Lindl Lawton;
John West-Sooby;
(2016)
The Art of Science: Nicolas Baudin's Voyagers 1800-1804
(/isis/citation/CBB362689104/)
Be the first to comment!