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These books represent important contributions to the English-language historiography on psychology and physiology in Germany. Egbert Klautke draws on the writings of Moritz Lazarus, Heymann Steinthal, Wilhelm Wundt and Willy Hellpach to examine the development of folk psychology ( Völkerpsychologie ). Gabriel Finkelstein’s biography of Emil du Bois-Reymond tracks the life and influence of arguably Germany’s most renowned nineteenth-century physiologist. Although all these figures were quite well known in their day, historians have paid remarkably little attention to them. Both Klautke and Finkelstein strive to open greater space for them in our historical understanding. In this vein, Klautke provides readers both with useful biographical summaries and with cogent accounts of his protagonists’ specific interpretations of Völkerpsychologie . But he also expands his narrative horizon beyond mere intellectual biography. Laudably, he pays special attention to the broader reception of their writings in an attempt to correct the misperception that Völkerpsychologie was merely ‘political propaganda dressed up as a social science’ (p. 2). Although often the object of ridicule for its untenable assumptions and sweeping generalizations, Klautke insists that the influence of Völkerpsychologie in Europe and the United States was far greater than intellectual historians have generally acknowledged. In particular, he notes that the central problem of Völkerpsychologie has remained an important trope within the humanities and social sciences despite the field’s ‘failure’ as an academic discipline.
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