Political Essay on the Island of Cuba: A Criticial Edition
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
First Edition. Hardcover. 9 1/4" X 6 1/4". xxvi, 519pp. First edition, with full number line indicating first printing. Very mild creasing and shelf wear to covers, corners, and edges of unclipped dust jacket. Bound in black cloth over boards with spine lettered in silver. Mild toning to boards. Very gentle bumps to head and tail of spine. Pages are clean and unmarked. Binding is firm, square, and sound.
ABOUT THIS BOOK:
The research Alexander von Humboldt amassed during his five-year trek through the Americas in the early nineteenth-century proved foundational to the fields of botany, geography, and geology. But his visit to Cuba during this time yielded observations that extended far beyond the natural world. Political Essay on the Island of Cuba is a physical and cultural study of the island nation. In it, Humboldt denounces colonial slavery on both moral and economic grounds and stresses the vital importance of improving intercultural relations throughout the Americas.
Humboldt’s most controversial book, Political Essay on the Island of Cuba was banned, censored, and willfully mistranslated to suppress Humboldt’s strong antislavery sentiments. It reemerges here, newly translated from the original two volume French edition, to introduce a new generation of readers to Humboldt’s astonishing multiplicity of scientific and philosophical perspectives. In their critical introduction, Vera Kutzinski and Ottmar Ette emphasize Humboldt’s rare ability to combine scientific rigor with a cosmopolitan consciousness and a deeply felt philosophical humanism. The result is a work on Cuba of historical import that will attract historians of science as well as cultural historians, political scientists, and literary scholars.(Publisher). Very Good / Very Good. Item #16358
ISBN: 9780226465678
Price: $35.00