Andrea Wulf

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's New World

The Invention of Nature

Wynter

How is that I've never heard of such a distinguished scientist as Alexander von Humboldt? This is the man that influenced some of the greatest thinkers, was an avid supporter of human rights in the age of slavery, and a proponent of conservationism when humanity was considered the centre of the God-created universe. Humboldt was a visionary that we need in our tumultuous times. He was perhaps not the most easy person to have a conversation with, but the legacy that he left cannot be ignored.

Andrea Wulf created a biography that is extremely readable and enlightening, but I thought it was overly padded in places by tangential discussions. This small fault is prominent in last few chapters that outlined entire careers of scientists inspired by Humboldt, and a piece on revolutionary movement in Latin America led by Bolivar. Not that I slogged through these parts, but I expected this to be purely a biography, when The Invention of Nature is more of natural history study from historical point of view. Totally not the author's fault, because this is definitely a worthy read.

An epic read and essential for anyone who wants to understand where the marriage between science and art came from. Humboldt was the first to use data visualization, the first to understand global ecology and an inspiration without whom Goethe, Darwin and Thoreau wouldn't have created their magnum opuses. The biography itself is well-written, well sourced and never boring. The man and the mind - fascinating, inspiring, encouraging.

Laura Hilliger

Dana Kraft

Loved this book. The last several chapters about how Humboldt influenced other famous naturalists was my favorite part.

In the epilogue, the author says that the English-speaking world has largely forgotten Humboldt because of anti-German sentiment in WWI among other reasons. She cites one example that Cincinnati renamed Humboldt St to Taft St. Reminds me of the move to remove names of Confederate leaders from schools, roads, etc. History repeats.

Elliot Baker

It seems that biographies are basically works of investigation. Take the data of a person's life and explain the force of personality that wove that person into a historical environment. Describe what connects one thing to another. Humboldt's work wasn't much different. Maybe he was working less with time and more with space and matter. Still, there was a suggestion of cause and effect, interrelation. Maybe he was writing a biography using the data at hand but he didn't know who he was writing it about.

I admire him for going out and finding the plant and soil specimens and breathing the air of the places he wanted to study. And I find the romanticism of his work appealing – nature isn't just mechanical but infused with human spirit and perception.

His extended project was amazingly self-directed and idiosyncratic. He didn't work in a university department or a corporation and so his incentive was always to fulfill his curiosity.

Jeremy Anderberg

“Humboldt gave us our concept of nature itself. The irony is that Humboldt’s views have become so self-evident that we have largely forgotten the man behind them.”

We take it for granted that all of nature is connected—one big circle of life. But that wasn’t always the prevailing idea in the realm of the natural sciences. Then came along Alexander von Humboldt. Through his South American explorations and unending research, he ultimately concluded that the entire natural world was connected; each piece was dependent on every other piece.

Humboldt’s encyclopedic knowledge of flora and fauna and even geology would be referenced over and over by the great naturalists of the age. His work would influence Thomas Jefferson, von Goethe, Emerson and Thoreau, Jules Verne, Walt Whitman, and perhaps most famously, John Muir (who said “how intensely I desired to be a Humboldt”). That he’s been forgotten in our modern world seems almost unconscionable.

There’s so much more to say about the man himself, but let me go a different direction:

Beyond learning a lot of really interesting facts, I was quite deeply personally inspired by Humboldt’s story. The guy just loved the outdoors and wanted to share it with the world. Wulf writes that he “was interested in everything” and that his pursuit of knowledge was “infectious” to those around him, who inevitably became sucked up in his work. Further, “he came to believe that imagination was as necessary as rational thought” and that the “creative force of imagination” could be used to “connect ideas, to detect chains of things.”

Reader, that is how I approach books and it’s the summation of my hopes for this newsletter. I’m a guy who’s interested in everything and hopes to connect certain ideas here and there, and in some way make life a little more beautiful. Humboldt taught me —through Andrea Wulf’s unbeatable narration—to lean in to what I most love and not apologize for it. Don’t tamp down your obsessions; just find a way to bring people along for the ride.

I’ll leave you with one final quote that I loved:

“He required information about everything and from everywhere, because ‘observations from the most disparate regions of the planet must be compared to one another.’ . . . Nothing was too small or insignificant to investigate because everything had its place in the great tapestry of nature.” 

I can’t recommend The Invention of Nature highly enough. I know I didn’t talk much about the book itself, but Wulf’s readable, inspiring, moving account of Humboldt’s life and influence is definitely going to stay with me for a long time. Though I finished it in the first week of the year, I’m confident it’ll among my favorite reading experiences of 2021.

Julian Sotscheck

A completely enriching perspective on a life of work of which’s impact and role many are probably completely unaware of. Not only is it fascinating to discover the approach, apparent uniqueness of the person but more so the immense impact of the work of Humboldt on much what we base our understanding on today. But, although at times a little lengthy, it’s a great read to enjoy and get fascinated by. At last, the exploration of how climate change has already been described so many decades back is shocking and fascinating at the same time. 

For anyone interested in holistic world views, committed works of great minds and who can enjoy natural exploration, this is a must read!

Ambar

Moritz Kindler

Simon Oosterdijk

WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2016 'A thrilling adventure story' Bill Bryson 'Dazzling' Literary Review 'Brilliant' Sunday Express 'Extraordinary and gripping' New Scientist 'A superb biography' The Economist 'An exhilarating armchair voyage' GILES MILTON, Mail on Sunday 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 Bol�var'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.

The Invention of Nature Alexander Von Humboldt's New World

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