international order. The lavish display was part of a wider strategy to win general acceptance ofPrussia as an equal, sovereign state and distinct from the Holy Roman Empire, which remainedclosely associated with the Austrian Habsburgs. The fact that the coronation was never repeated bysubsequent Prussian monarchs does not distract from its importance at the time. Friedrich givesgreater scope than is usual to Frederick’s efforts to secure recognition from Poland and offers thefirst satisfactory account of why this was withheld until 1764. The long campaign to prove thatFrederick was worthy of his new honour is examined by Sara Smart, who outlines the considerablebuilding, artistic and educational programmes undertaken since Frederick’s accession in 1688 totransform Berlin into a fittingly royal capital. She highlights the role of Johann von Besser, who, asmaster of ceremonies from 1690, oversaw the articulation of a carefully constructed image of theHohenzollern dynasty as the equals of other European royalty.

The bulk of the volume is devoted to presenting eleven contemporary texts, including ten in newtranslations by Pamela Selwyn and Martin Sorrell, as well as John Toland’s account of the Prussiancourt, which already appeared in English in 1702. Five of the works are by Besser, includingsubstantial extracts from his history of the coronation, which is the only one of the texts alreadyavailable in a less complete translation by C. A. Macartney from 1970. There are also poems byBesser praising Frederick and his father, the ‘Great Elector’ Frederick William, as well as the librettofrom his court opera The Triumph of Beauty over the Heroes (1706), description of the Berlin courtfrom 1700 and his account of the inauguration of Halle University (1694) that formed part of thewider cultural programme. The latter is also represented in documents relating to the founding ofthe Royal Prussian Society of Sciences (1700), the statutes of the Order of the Black Eagle (1701)and the elaborate table of ranks (1705). The political dimension is covered by a Prussian pamphletrefuting papal objections to the new title and by the later reflections of Count Christoph von Dohna,one of the chief architects of the project. All the texts have full supporting apparatus of explanatorynotes, and each translation is accompanied by the original text, greatly enhancing the volume’svalue as a teaching tool in a range of disciplines. As an added bonus – not heralded in the Contentslist – the reader gets clear reproductions of thirteen contemporary engravings as examples of thevisual dimension to the campaign for recognition of the Prussian title.

Peter H. WilsonUniversity of Hull

Exploring the Explorers: Spaniards in Oceania, 1519-1794. By Mercedes Maroto Camino.Manchester: Manchester University Press. 2008. 243 p. 16 b. and w. illus. £60 (hb). ISBN 978-0-7190-7779-1.

Exploring the Explorers studies Spanish exploration of the Pacific Ocean from its discovery until theend of the eighteenth century. Maroto Camino chronicles a total of eight separate voyages in theregion, beginning with Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe (1519-20) and culminating in theEnlightenment voyages of Mourelle la Rua and Malaspina in the decades after 1770. She considersthe rationale behind these expeditions and offers a detailed account of the itineraries, encountersand tribulations that characterised each voyage, focusing in particular on the cross-culturalcontacts that occurred throughout the exploration process and on the exchange of goods andknowledge that marked Spanish relations with Pacific islanders. Maroto Camino’s work furnishesan illuminating analysis of expeditions that have, to date, received little intensive coverage andwhich, in many cases, remain all but unknown to scholars outside the Hispanic world. Itcomplements the more numerous studies of British and French ventures in the region, notably thevoyages of Cook and La Pérouse. It also enriches a growing body of literature on scientificexpeditions in the Hispanic world, a subject that has attracted increasing attention in recent years.

Exploring the Explorers concentrates primarily on the ethnographical aspects of exploration,noting how factors such as complexion, diet, language and rituals inform cross-culturalencounters. Much of this information is fascinating. Some observations could, however, beanalysed further. For example, Maroto Camino intimates in her introduction that one of the

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interesting aspects of Spanish Pacific voyages is that many were launched from the Americas –usually Mexico or Peru – and comprised largely American-born personnel, which she suspects mayhave influenced their attitudes towards the islanders they encountered. This is an intriguing idea,and may have some validity, but is not addressed as extensively as it could be in the text itself, forwhile several tantalising references are made to the presence of African slaves and mixed-raceindividuals among the crew – and even, on one occasion, to the recruitment of Peruvian Indians as(ineffectual) translators – the broader epistemological impact of these groups is not really discussedin depth. In particular, it would be instructive to think about how conceptions of racial differencewere influenced by the experience of living in the multiracial Spanish colonies, and to situatedescriptions of Pacific peoples within wider perceptions of race from the colonial period. DidSpaniards/Creoles conceptualise race biologically or culturally? Did they view racial categories asfluid or impermeable? And did encounters with Pacific peoples challenge existing hierarchies of andassumptions about race in the Hispanic world? The sources from Maroto Camino’s voyages may notconsider these issues explicitly, but the author could have elucidated the subject by makingreference to other contemporary works, such as Hipólito Unanue’s El clima de Lima (1806), whichsubverts prevailing European conceptions of the features that denote beauty and intelligence andspecifically cites Tahitian women as examples of non-European physical perfection.

The largely chronological structure of the book, while helpful in making explicit the events ofeach voyage, also makes the work at times a little narrative and repetitive. A few more thematicsections comparing and contrasting the various expeditions might have been instructive. The workwould have benefited too from a more extensive conclusion, making explicit how Spanishexpeditions diverged from their British and French equivalents and whether the intriguingprocesses of exchange described here typified European voyages elsewhere or were a distinctivefeature of Spanish Pacific exploration. I nevertheless enjoyed Exploring the Explorers and believe it tobe a valuable and original study that enhances our understanding of cross-cultural ‘engagements’in the Pacific.

Helen CowieUniversity of Warwick

The Passage to Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Shaping of America. By LauraDassow Walls. Chicago, IL, and London: University of Chicago Press. 2009. xv + 404 p. 22 halftoneillus. £24 (hb). ISBN 978-0-226-87182-0.

On many levels Alexander von Humboldt is a deeply modern figure. His writings exposed, forinstance, the detrimental impact that man could have on his immediate environment viadeforestation and the resultant rise in surface temperatures and reduction in rainfall. He wasvehemently anti-slavery, not for economic reasons but simply from a moral repugnance at the ideaof men possessing their fellow men. In a similar vein he was broadly sympathetic to the plight ofNative peoples in the Americas, arguing that they were not an ‘inferior’ race but rather sharedmany commonalities with Europeans. A prodigious polymath, Humboldt viewed the arts andsciences as part of a holistic ‘Kosmos’, not as the clearly delineated disciplines they are today, and attimes one simply has to marvel at his ability to ‘see’ across traditional boundaries. When studyingone so radical, it is almost easy to forget that Humboldt was born in 1769 and died in 1859, havinglived through the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic era, thedisintegration of the Spanish empire in the Americas and the revolutions of 1848.

Laura Dassow Walls’s new book is far from a conventional biography, although it does outlinebasic biographical details. Rather, she is interested in Humboldt’s immense influence, especially inthe United States. Humboldt visited the USA only briefly, in 1804, when he met President Jeffersonamong others, yet his intellectual impact on the new nation was enormous. The publication of anumber of books relating to Humboldt’s travels through South America established him as one ofthe world’s leading natural scientists, ecologists, geographers, climatologists, ethnographers andmuch else besides. Humboldt’s fame preceded him to America and grew after his departure, via his

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