The Science of Culture in Enlightenment Germany. By Michael C. Carhart. Cambridge,MA, and London: Harvard University Press.

摘要

This is an entertaining book. Its chapters are organized around a series of vi-ngnettes: Carsten Niebuhr on camelback negotiating with his Bedouin guides;nferal French children skinning rabbits with their bare hands; English gentlemennin Syrian deserts; Captain Cook’s lieutenants carving “steaks” from the severednheads of war victims. In case you’ve lost your bearings, let me assure you that ThenScience of Culture in Enlightenment Germany is indeed about EnlightenmentnGermany. But, as the structure of the chapters suggests, Michael Carhartnwants to emphasize Germany’s myriad connections to the wider world. Innother words, eighteenth-century German debates over culture and enlighten-nment were much more than merely German debates.