The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790. By Ritchie Robertson. New York: HarperCollins, 2021. xxiv + 984 pages. $45.00 hardcover, $24.49 e-book.

Abstract

(2012), which argues that decolonization must involve the “repatriation of Indigenous land and life” and warns against using decolonization as a general term for social justice work. Moreover, the editors acknowledge that though this volume engages in critique, it also believes that “German Studies is a discipline worth reforming” and thus contributes to settler futurity, i.e., envisioning a future that upholds settler colonialism (2). However, following Gurminder K. Bhambra et al. (Decolonising the University, 2018), they also note that colonialism exists in multiple forms beyond American settler colonialism and turn to models of decolonization that view Western universities as key sites of colonial knowledge production and that aim to center nonWestern ways of knowing and learning. Finally, they focus in on language instruction, drawing on Claire Kramsch’s chapter in Decolonizing Foreign Language Education (ed. Donaldo Macedo, 2019)—a highly relevant collection in its entirety—which argues for the need to resist the neoliberal instrumentalization of language learning and to uncouple standard languages from colonial nations. Ashwin Manthripragada and Emina Mušanović’s contribution stands out for its thorough engagement with theories of decolonization, probing the limits of decolonial approaches within institutions of colonial power and settler colonial states. Manthripragada and Mušanović argue that U.S.-based practitioners of German Studies must confront not only the legacies of German colonialism, but also their own complicity in the ongoing territorial colonialism of the United States. Moreover, they question the possibility of bringing together diversity frameworks with Tuck and Yang’s understanding of decolonization; in this view, approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion still involve dividing up the power and wealth of settler colonialism. At the same time, however, Manthripragada and Mušanović caution against applying North American discourses of settler colonialism to Germany and Austria, where an indigenous Germanic identity has historically been mobilized by white ethnonationalists to oppose immigration and legitimate territorial claims. Ultimately, they argue, a decolonial German Studies must either develop nuanced, context-dependent approaches to concepts of indigeneity, or turn to non-territorial models of decolonization not centered on native/migrant opposition. Through their work of “unsettling” (24), Manthripragada and Mušanović also evoke the limitations of reform and of German Studies itself. DDGC’s guiding principles, published on the collective’s website, also signal an openness to thinking beyond academic disciplines and the universities that house them, and it is here that the greatest potential for decolonizing may ultimately lie. But as instructors, researchers, advisors, program directors, and community members, we can work towards just, equitable, and decolonial education on multiple levels at once. Whether that means designing a new unit or restructuring a program’s curriculum, Diversity and Decolonization in German Studies will serve as an invaluable resource along the way.