What is German history? Where did it take place? And what role did Germans living outside of Central Europe play in it? This polycentric history offers a new vision: It uses communities of Germans, from Austria to Chile to Russia, to rethink our narratives of modern German history. Focusing on the great plurality of Germans, and their interconnections around the world, it pointedly de-centers the nation-state while arguing that resisting its dominance in our historical narratives has high intellectual and political stakes. For within an unbound German history there are characteristics, clues, models, and precedents that can do much to undermine the return of violent, exclusionary nationalism. To that end, this book calls for a greater integration of mobilities, migration flows, different ways of belonging, and transcultural places into our narratives of Germans' histories. Ultimately, it reveals how embracing a range of narratives can help us to better understand people's actions, intentions, and motivations in particular historical moments.

What is German history? Where did it take place? And what role did Germans living outside of Central Europe play in it? This polycentric history offers a new vision: It uses communities of Germans, from Austria to Chile to Russia, to rethink our narratives of modern German history. Focusing on the great plurality of Germans, and their interconnections around the world, it pointedly de-centers the nation-state while arguing that resisting its dominance in our historical narratives has high intellectual and political stakes. For within an unbound German history there are characteristics, clues, models, and precedents that can do much to undermine the return of violent, exclusionary nationalism. To that end, this book calls for a greater integration of mobilities, migration flows, different ways of belonging, and transcultural places into our narratives of Germans' histories. Ultimately, it reveals how embracing a range of narratives can help us to better understand people's actions, intentions, and motivations in particular historical moments.

A compelling history of the German ethnologists who were inspired by Prussian polymath and explorer Alexander von Humboldt The Berlin Ethnological Museum is one of the world's largest and most important anthropological museums, housing more than a half million objects collected from around the globe. In Humboldt's Shadow tells the story of the German scientists and adventurers who, inspired by Alexander von Humboldt's inclusive vision of the world, traveled the earth in pursuit of a total history of humanity. It also details the fate of their museum, which they hoped would be a scientists' workshop, a place where a unitary history of humanity might emerge. H. Glenn Penny shows how these early German ethnologists assembled vast ethnographic collections to facilitate their study of the multiplicity of humanity, not to confirm emerging racist theories of human difference. He traces how Adolf Bastian filled the Berlin museum in an effort to preserve the records of human diversity, yet how he and his supporters were swept up by the imperialist currents of the day and struck a series of Faustian bargains to ensure the growth of their collections. Penny describes how influential administrators such as Wilhelm von Bode demanded that the museum be transformed into a hall for public displays, and how Humboldt's inspiring ideals were ultimately betrayed by politics and personal ambition. In Humboldt's Shadow calls on museums to embrace anew Bastian's vision while deepening their engagement with indigenous peoples concerning the provenance and stewardship of these collections.

This engaging collection of essays discusses the complexities of "being" indigenous in public spaces. Laura R. Graham and H. Glenn Penny bring together a set of highly recognized junior and senior scholars, including indigenous scholars, from a variety of fields to provoke critical thinking about the many ways in which individuals and social groups construct and display unique identities around the world. The case studies in "Performing Indigeneity" underscore the social, historical, and immediate contextual factors at play when indigenous people make decisions about when, how, why, and who can "be" indigenous in public spaces.
"Performing Indigeneity" invites readers to consider how groups and individuals think about performance and display and focuses attention on the ways that public spheres, both indigenous and nonindigenous ones, have received these performances. The essays demonstrate that performance and display are essential to the creation and persistence of indigeneity, while also presenting the conundrum that in many cases "indigeneity" excludes some of the voices or identities that the category purports to represent.

This engaging collection of essays discusses the complexities of "being" indigenous in public spaces. Laura R. Graham and H. Glenn Penny bring together a set of highly recognized junior and senior scholars, including indigenous scholars, from a variety of fields to provoke critical thinking about the many ways in which individuals and social groups construct and display unique identities around the world. The case studies in "Performing Indigeneity" underscore the social, historical, and immediate contextual factors at play when indigenous people make decisions about when, how, why, and who can "be" indigenous in public spaces.
"Performing Indigeneity" invites readers to consider how groups and individuals think about performance and display and focuses attention on the ways that public spheres, both indigenous and nonindigenous ones, have received these performances. The essays demonstrate that performance and display are essential to the creation and persistence of indigeneity, while also presenting the conundrum that in many cases "indigeneity" excludes some of the voices or identities that the category purports to represent.

How do we explain the persistent preoccupation with American Indians in Germany and the staggering numbers of Germans one encounters as visitors to Indian country? As H. Glenn Penny demonstrates, that preoccupation is rooted in an affinity for American Indians that has permeated German cultures for two centuries. This affinity stems directly from German polycentrism, notions of tribalism, a devotion to resistance, a longing for freedom, and a melancholy sense of shared fate. Locating the origins of the fascination for Indian life in the transatlantic world of German cultures in the nineteenth century, Penny explores German settler colonialism in the American Midwest, the rise and fall of German America, and the transnational worlds of American Indian performers. As he traces this phenomenon through the twentieth century, Penny engages debates about race, masculinity, comparative genocides, and American Indians' reactions to Germans' interests in them. He also assesses what persists of the affinity across the political ruptures of modern German history and challenges readers to rethink how cultural history is made.

In the late nineteenth century, Germans spearheaded a worldwide effort to preserve the material traces of humanity, designing major ethnographic museums and building extensive networks of communication and exchange across the globe. In this groundbreaking study, Glenn Penny explores the appeal of ethnology in Imperial Germany and analyzes the motivations of the scientists who created the ethnographic museums.

Penny shows that German ethnologists were not driven by imperialist desires or an interest in legitimating putative biological or racial hierarchies. Overwhelmingly antiracist, they aspired to generate theories about the essential nature of human beings through their museums' collections. They gained support in their efforts from boosters who were enticed by participating in this international science and who used it to promote the cosmopolitan character of their cities and themselves. But these cosmopolitan ideals were eventually overshadowed by the scientists' more modern, professional, and materialist concerns, which dramatically altered the science and its goals.

By clarifying German ethnologists' aspirations and focusing on the market and conflicting interest groups, Penny makes important contributions to German history, the history of science, and museum studies.