The Invention of Nature

Alexander von Humboldt's New World

paperback, 576 pages

Published Oct. 4, 2016 by Vintage.

ISBN:
978-0-345-80629-1
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

5 stars (2 reviews)

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world—and in the process created modern environmentalism. • From the acclaimed author of Magnificent Rebels.

"Vivid and exciting.... Wulf’s pulsating account brings this dazzling figure back into a dazzling, much-deserved focus.” —The Boston Globe

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was the most famous scientist of his age, a visionary German naturalist and polymath whose discoveries forever changed the way we understand the natural world. Among his most revolutionary ideas was a radical conception of nature as a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone. In North America, Humboldt’s name still graces towns, counties, parks, bays, lakes, mountains, and a river. And yet the man has been all but forgotten.

In this illuminating biography, Andrea Wulf brings Humboldt’s extraordinary life back into …

4 editions

The Invention of Nature

5 stars

One of the minds born of the Age of Enlightenment was Alexander Von Humboldt. I didn't realise before reading this book how central he is to the way we think about nature and the world. Minds such as Darwin, John Muir, Thoreau, George Marsh, Earnest Haeckel (along with the Art Nouveau movement) and so on were directly influenced by his works and worldview. This worldview saw nature and humanity as a global intertwined system which can only be understood through a combination of great leaps of the imagination (the subjective and emotional experience) as well as hard data (the scientific, empirical and objective mind) together, a radical new theory for the time. I feel after reading this book I understand my passion and profession (I am an MSc earth science student) so much more, as well as the origins of my field. I feel university and the education system in …

fascinating biography

4 stars

Deeply researched biography, following this influential European naturalist doing mostly things you'd expect: heroically adventuring through the Americas, taking the rest of his life to write and influence other scientists and artists and politicians (Goethe, Simon Bolivar, Charles Darwin, and John Muir all get space here), and mostly not worrying about money or relationships. And yet this is well told, and the central thesis rings through that Humboldt's realizations and advocacy about the interconnected global phenomenon of life and distribution of species and ecosystems and colonial practices impact on diversity have all dispersed so thoroughly into our world by those who were his fans that we've nearly forgotten Humboldt. A fine hope for us all.