| ISBN |
9781473628793 (paperback) |
| Shelf Location |
B HUMB |
| Author |
Wulf, Andrea, author |
| Title |
The invention of nature : Alexander von Humboldt's the lost hero of science / Andrea Wulf. |
| Production/Publication data |
London John Murray, 2015. |
| ©2015 |
| Physical Description |
xix, 473 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some colour), maps, portraits ; 24 cm. |
| Carrier Type |
volume |
| Notes |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents Notes |
Part 1. Departure: Emerging ideas. Beginnings -- Imagination and nature: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Humboldt -- In search of a destination. -- Part 2. Arrival: Collecting ideas. South America -- The Llanos and the Orinoco -- Across the Andes -- Chimborazo -- Politics and nature: Thomas Jefferson and Humboldt. -- Part 3. Return: Sorting ideas. Europe -- Berlin -- Paris -- Revolutions and nature: Simon Bolivar and Humboldt -- London -- Going in circles: Maladie Centrifuge -- Part 4. Influence: Spreading ideas. Return to Berlin -- Russia -- Evolution and nature: Charles Darwin and Humboldt -- Humbolt's Cosmos -- Poetry, science and nature: Henry David Thoreau and Humboldt -- Part 5. New worlds: Evolving ideas. The greatest man since the deluge -- Man and nature: George Perkins Marsh and Humboldt -- Art, ecology and nature: Ernst Haeckel and Humboldt -- Preservation and nature: John Muir and Humboldt. |
| Summary Note |
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is the great lost scientist: more things are named after him than anyone else. There are towns, rivers, mountain ranges, the ocean current that runs along the South American coast, there's a penguin, a giant squid - even the Mare Humboldtianum on the moon. His colourful adventures read like something out of a Boy's Own story: Humboldt explored deep into the rainforest, climbed the world's highest volcanoes and inspired princes and presidents, scientists and poets alike. Napoleon was jealous of him; Simon Bolivar's revolution was fuelled by his ideas; Darwin set sail on the Beagle because of Humboldt; and Jules Verne's Captain Nemo owned all his many books. He simply was, as one contemporary put it, 'the greatest man since the Deluge'. Taking us on a fantastic voyage in his footsteps - racing across anthrax-infected Russia or mapping tropical rivers alive with crocodiles - Andrea Wulf shows why his life and ideas remain so important today. Humboldt predicted human-induced climate change as early as 1800, and The Invention of Nature traces his ideas as they go on to revolutionize and shape science, conservation, nature writing, politics, art and the theory of evolution. He wanted to know and understand everything and his way of thinking was so far ahead of his time that it's only coming into its own now. Alexander von Humboldt really did invent the way we see nature. |
| Subject added entry -- Personal Name |
Humboldt, Alexander von, 1769-1859 |
| Humboldt, Alexander von, 1769-1859 |
| Humboldt, Alexander von, 1769-1859 |
| Subject |
Naturalists |
| Scientists |
| Scientists -- Germany -- Biography |
| Naturalists -- Germany -- Biography |
| Subject (Geographic) |
Germany |
| Genre |
Biography |
| Links to Related Works |
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