The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World

Andrea Wulf

Sep 2015 · Sold by Vintage

About this ebook

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 focus: his prediction of human-induced climate change; his daring expeditions to the highest peaks of South America and to the anthrax-infected steppes of Siberia; his relationships with iconic figures, including Simón Bolívar and Thomas Jefferson; and the lasting influence of his writings on Darwin, Wordsworth, Goethe, Muir, Thoreau, and many others. Brilliantly researched and stunningly written, The Invention of Nature reveals the myriad ways in which Humboldt’s ideas form the foundation of modern environmentalism—and reminds us why they are as prescient and vital as ever.

Ratings and reviews

Wholly engaging, but compromised by uneven storytelling and appalling editing. The punctuation is a curious combination of American- and British-English (single-quotation marks, but no Oxford comma), and the number of grammatical lapses is astounding. Ms Wulf's oversimplification of the Huxley-Wilberforce exchange, furthermore, is particularly troubling. I am not acquainted with Ms Wulf's other books; but I am inclined to suspect that she is not the perpetrator of the book's greatest shortcomings, but is rather to be numbered among the victims of a hack editor. I do not regret the purchase, nor the time I invested in becoming better acquainted with von Humboldt; but the publisher's should be ashamed for releasing such an unpolished wad of text. We may hope that Ms Wulf herself was disappointed, too.

As others have remarked, the author does digress from time to time & discusses subjects other than Humboldt. I love this! It's quite possibly the way that a conversation with Humboldt would wander & quest into new areas of thought inspired by more than just what fits into the box of typical Western conversation. If you can't follow the cyclical, open minded thinking then perhaps a high school history text is more appropriate. Otherwise, this an informative & enjoyably quirky book worth reading.

wonderful

About the author

ANDREA WULF was born in India and moved to Germany as a child. She lives in London, where she trained as a design historian at the Royal College of Art. She is the author of Chasing Venus, Founding Gardeners, and The Brother Gardeners, which was long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize and awarded the American Horticultural Society Book Award. She has written for The New York Times, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. She appears regularly on radio and TV, and in 2014 copresented British Gardens in Time, a four-part series on BBC television.