Hans Staden's True History

“At long last an English edition of Hans Staden’s account of his captivity among the Tupinambá of mid-sixteenth-century Brazil is available for scholars, teachers, and students. . . . This book, with an extensive introduction written by anthropologist Neil Whitehead and a new English test translated from the German by historian Michael Harbsmeier, is an attractive, accessible, and reliable resource for teaching and research.” - Eve M. Duffy, Hispanic American Historical Review
“In this superb new English translation of his account, Whitehead and Harbsmeier make it possible for a new generation of US students to learn of Staden's travails. A sophisticated essay that places Hans Staden in his proper historical context serves as the introduction to the translation. . . . Highly recommended.” - R. M. Delson, Choice
“The book is a critical edition. . . . The book has become a cornerstone for discussion concerning native practices of cannibalism, but at the same time it is one of the earliest accounts available describing Brazil. Thus Whitehead and Harbsmeier seek to ransom the book from its place in the debate over cannibalism and place it rather within the literature of European contact with the native peoples of the Americas.” - John F. Schwaller, The Americas
“This new translation into English of Hans Staden’s Warhaftige Historia, or True History, originally published in 1557 in Marburg, will fill a gap in the study of both European colonialism and travel literature. . . . Illustrated with plentiful woodcuts and underscored by ethnographic descriptions, Staden’s book is a keystone to the history of colonial Brazil and of Tupi-Guarani societies, as well as to current refashionings of the colonial past. . . . Despite its exceptional quality among early colonial texts, there has not been an English-language version since Malcolm Lett’s edition of 1928. Whitehead’s and Harbsmeier’s accurate transcription and annotated translation of Staden’s first edition remedy this neglect. Moreover, their introductory study not only reconstructs the text’s legacies in a variety of contexts and disciplines, but also demonstrates its persistent appeal for current debates.” - Luciana Villas-Bóas, Colonial Latin American Review
“Whitehead and Harbsmeier have provided a lucid and readable translation that preserves the choppy rhythm and colloquial feel of the original German without sacrificing accessibility. . . . Hans Staden's True History is usefully true and usefully history. . . . Scholars of early modern Germany and of European colonialism, in addition to scholars of Brazil, now have a wonderful text with which to explore these and other issues with their students. With this translation, Whitehead and Harbsmeier have significantly advanced the study of the early modern world.” - Christine R. Johnson, H-German, H-Net Reviews
“I was quite astonished to find out that no version of Hans Staden’s account had been printed in English since 1929. Not only is it the earliest eyewitness narrative of the Tupi peoples written by a European; it deals with the heated and enduring debate about the role of cannibalism in human experience.”—Irene Silverblatt, author of Modern Inquisitions: Peru and the Colonial Origins of the Civilized World
“Neil L. Whitehead’s introduction contextualizes Staden’s account with amazing richness. This is the definitive English edition.”—Mary Louise Pratt, Silver Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures, New York University
“There is no doubt that this volume has returned Hans Staden’s narrative to its place as a basic text of European expansion and one of the most important accounts of cannibalism. This 1557 text is important for the wealth of its ethnographic observations, taken at first-hand by Staden, and for the narrative structure, which makes it comparable to the journal of Columbus, Raleigh’s Discoveries, or Jean de Léry’s Histoire.”—Stuart Schwartz, George Burton Adams Professor of History, Yale University
“At long last an English edition of Hans Staden’s account of his captivity among the Tupinambá of mid-sixteenth-century Brazil is available for scholars, teachers, and students. . . . This book, with an extensive introduction written by anthropologist Neil Whitehead and a new English test translated from the German by historian Michael Harbsmeier, is an attractive, accessible, and reliable resource for teaching and research.” -- Eve M. Duffy * Hispanic American Historical Review *
“In this superb new English translation of his account, Whitehead and Harbsmeier make it possible for a new generation of US students to learn of Staden's travails. A sophisticated essay that places Hans Staden in his proper historical context serves as the introduction to the translation. . . . Highly recommended.” -- R. M. Delson * Choice *
“The book is a critical edition. . . . The book has become a cornerstone for discussion concerning native practices of cannibalism, but at the same time it is one of the earliest accounts available describing Brazil. Thus Whitehead and Harbsmeier seek to ransom the book from its place in the debate over cannibalism and place it rather within the literature of European contact with the native peoples of the Americas.” -- John F. Schwaller * The Americas *
“This new translation into English of Hans Staden’s Warhaftige Historia, or True History, originally published in 1557 in Marburg, will fill a gap in the study of both European colonialism and travel literature. . . . Illustrated with plentiful woodcuts and underscored by ethnographic descriptions, Staden’s book is a keystone to the history of colonial Brazil and of Tupi-Guarani societies, as well as to current refashionings of the colonial past. . . . Despite its exceptional quality among early colonial texts, there has not been an English-language version since Malcolm Lett’s edition of 1928. Whitehead’s and Harbsmeier’s accurate transcription and annotated translation of Staden’s first edition remedy this neglect. Moreover, their introductory study not only reconstructs the text’s legacies in a variety of contexts and disciplines, but also demonstrates its persistent appeal for current debates.” -- Luciana Villas-Bóas * Colonial Latin American Review *
“Whitehead and Harbsmeier have provided a lucid and readable translation that preserves the choppy rhythm and colloquial feel of the original German without sacrificing accessibility. . . . Hans Staden's True History is usefully true and usefully history. . . . Scholars of early modern Germany and of European colonialism, in addition to scholars of Brazil, now have a wonderful text with which to explore these and other issues with their students. With this translation, Whitehead and Harbsmeier have significantly advanced the study of the early modern world.” -- Christine R. Johnson H-German * H-Net Reviews *