M oritz von B rescius . German Science in the Age of Empire

In German Science in the Age of Empire, Moritz von Brescius explores the “logics and contradictions of transnational science” through the expeditions and exploits of the Bavaria-born Schlagintweit brothers (3). While little-remembered today, the brothers found themselves at the center of international controversy in the latter half of the 1850s, and the debates over their methods and findings played a crucial role in the development of field sciences, museology, and the practice of European imperialism. Brescius has chosen his subjects well. His account of the Schlagintweits’ expeditions in South and Central Asia (1854–57) explores a critical transitional period in European history, several of them, in fact—from Humboldtian natural science to the era of specialization; from systems of patronage based on state sponsorship to a market for science as a commodity for the growing middle class; from a cultural form of German national identity to a more statist nationalism; from the imperialism of the British East India Company to the raj. As Germans in the employ of the East India Company (EIC), with joint sponsorship from the Prussian crown, working with a virtual army of indigenous laborers, the brothers’ story is revealing about the “transnational nature of British Imperialism” and European science in the nineteenth century (74).

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