Main entry:

Wulf, Andrea, author.

Title & Author:

The invention of nature : Alexander von Humboldt's new world / Andrea Wulf.

Edition:

First Vintage books edition.

Publication:

New York : Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2016.
©2016

Description:

x, 552 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps, portraits (some color) ; 21 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 405-534) and index.
Departure : Emerging Ideas. Beginnings -- Imagination and nature : Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Humboldt -- In search of a destination -- Arrival : Collecting Ideas. South America -- The llanos and the Orinoco -- Across the Andes -- Chimborazo -- Politics and nature : Thomas Jefferson and Humboldt -- Return : Sorting Ideas. Europe -- Berlin -- Paris -- Revolutions and nature : Simón Bolívar and Humboldt -- London -- Going in circles : maladie centrifuge -- Influence : Spreading Ideas. Return to Berlin -- Russia -- Evolution and nature : Charles Darwin and Humboldt -- Humboldt's Cosmos -- Poetry, science and nature : Henry David Thoreau and Humboldt -- 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.
Royal Society Science Book Prize, 2016
James Wright Award for Nature Writing, 2016
Costa Biography Award, 2015

Summary:

A portrait of the German naturalist reveals his ongoing influence on humanity's relationship with the natural world today, discussing such topics as his views on climate change, conservation, and nature as a resource for all life.
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. In North America, his name still graces counties, towns, a river, parks, bays, lakes, and mountains. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, whether he was climbing volcanoes, racing through Siberia, or translating his research into bestselling publications that changed science. Among Humboldt's most revolutionary ideas was a radical vision of nature as a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone. Now Andrea Wulf brings the man and his achievements back into focus: his daring expeditions and investigation of wild environments around the world and his discoveries of similarities between climate and vegetation zones on different continents. She also discusses his prediction of human-induced climate change, his remarkable ability to fashion poetic narrative out of scientific observation, and his relationships with iconic figures such as Simón Bolívar and Thomas Jefferson. Wulf examines how Humboldt's writings inspired other naturalists and poets such as Darwin, Wordsworth, and Goethe, and she makes the case that it was Humboldt's influence that led John Muir to his ideas of natural preservation and that shaped Thoreau's Walden. Wulf shows how Humboldt created our understanding of the natural world, and champions a renewed interest in this vital player in environmental history and science.-- Adapted from book jacket.

ISBN:

9780345806291 (paperback)
0345806298 (paperback)

Subject:

Humboldt, Alexander von, 1769-1859.
Humboldt, Alexander von 1769-1859
BMBF-Statusseminar
Scientists Germany Biography.
Naturalists Germany Biography.
Natural Science Disciplines history
Naturalistes Allemagne Biographies.
Naturalists
Scientists
Naturwissenschaftler
Vetenskapsmän.
Naturvetenskaplig forskning.
Germany

Form/genre:

Biography
Biographies.
Biografiee͏̈n (vorm)

Holdings:

Location: Library main 293638
Call No.: BIB 238750
Status: Available