The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World in Science and Inquiry

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

Andrea Wulf

Start date: May 1, 2016

Finish date: May 31, 2016

Discussion: Book Club 2016

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Book Club 2016

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May 24, 2016 David Rubenstein rated it it was amazing

Shelves: environment, biography, evolution, travel, ecology, geology, natural-history

This is a wonderful biography of a man about whom I knew very little. Today, in the United States, his name is practically unknown, despite being a world-wide celebrity in his day. Humboldt was a great explorer and scientist. He saw nature as a unified whole, an "organism in which parts only worked in relation to each other." His approach was holistic, and was entirely against the reductionist approach to science. Perhaps because of the influence of Goethe, Humboldt strongly advocated merging of This is a wonderful biography of a man about whom I knew very little. Today, in the United States, his name is practically unknown, despite being a world-wide celebrity in his day. Humboldt was a great explorer and scientist. He saw nature as a unified whole, an "organism in which parts only worked in relation to each other." His approach was holistic, and was entirely against the reductionist approach to science. Perhaps because of the influence of Goethe, Humboldt strongly advocated merging of art and science. In 1806, his writings were about evolutionary ideas, long before Darwin. In fact, Darwin took Humboldt's seven-volume book Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent along with him during his voyage aboard the Beagle. In his book Views of Nature, Humboldt wrote about how weather and geography influence the moods of people--and this was a revelation. He inspired generations of scientists, writers and poets, including Thoreau, Emerson, Darwin, and Jules Verne. Humboldt was also a strident abolitionist: He equated colonialism with slavery and "European barbarism." He befriended and greatly influenced Sim贸n Bol铆var's efforts to free South America from the tyranny of its colonial status. He was the world's foremost expert on Latin America.

When Humboldt was young, he yearned to participate in adventures and exploration. At the age of 27, he went off on an exploration of South America, an adventure that lasted five years. He survived terrible conditions, jungle heat, mountain cold, high-altitude sickness, and the torment of mosquitos. He did not take a large retinue, but only traveled with one scientist friend and a couple of guides. Along the way he took copious notes, a multitude of measurements with his scientific instruments, and lots of specimens of flora and fauna. He sent them back to Europe at regular intervals, in case he never made it back home alive.

Humboldt invented the concept of isotherms, that enabled a global understanding of climate. Back in Europe, he gave many free lectures in Berlin, encouraging people of all classes to attend. Half of the attendees were women. His lectures were unique, connecting "seemingly disparate disciplines and facts." He talked about the complex web of nature with "extraordinary clarity." He organized a remarkable conference of 500 scientists from all across Europe.

When Humboldt was 59 years old, he went on an expedition to Siberia. After analyzing the geology of certain areas in the Ural mountains, he predicted that he would find diamonds, and everyone thought he was crazy. But, he did find them!

He was at heart an environmentalist. He wrote a lot about the destruction of forests and long-term changes to the environment. He described three ways in which humans change the climate; deforestation, ruthless irrigation, and through steam and gas in industrial centers. He proposed a global network of stations to measure the Earth's magnetic field, and when it came about, he collected two million measurements over a three-year period.

Humboldt was a great explorer. He strongly encouraged explorers and artists to travel. He decried people who tried to do arm-chair science. He aided less fortunate scientists and explorers, giving them funds even though his own financial position was precarious. One American travel writer wrote that he "came to Berlin not to see museums and galleries, but 'for the sake of seeing and speaking with the world's greatest living man.'"

In this book, Andrea Wulf does much more that merely narrate the life of Humboldt. She also goes to great lengths to give the biographies of some other amazing people who were strongly influenced by Humboldt. In this way, we get a picture of how important Humboldt was, and still is. Humboldt was one of the first environmentalists and wrote so much about ecology. The book is well-written, well-organized, and fun to read. The descriptions of Humboldt's travels are gripping, as she writes about the dangerous climbs, diseases, and predators all around. I highly recommend it to everyone interested in nature, science, and exploration. ...more

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Aug 01, 2017 Susanna - Censored by GoodReads rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Not flawless (for me the weakest chapter was on Humboldt and Thoreau), but endlessly fascinating. Before there was Carl Sagan and his Cosmos, there was the great Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, and his Kosmos.

Why have we forgotten him? Because he was German? (That would be depressing.) Because he did not invent one theory in a specific field, but a way of looking at the universe? (Possible, I think. The former is easier to teach in school than the latter.) I don't know. At any rate, ...more

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May 12, 2022 Jim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1audio, 2non-fiction, science

I've stumbled across von Humbolt's name for years, but always as quick references. It's bugged me because they were so diverse & scattered. I never heard about him in school, yet it seemed as if he was influential. I remember reading his name in Voyage of the Beagle, stuff I read John Muir & Thomas Jefferson, so when I saw this book about him, I snatched it up. It was a great find & proof of just how bad censorship & prejudice can be; their effects lingering for years.

He was one of the fathers o ...more

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Nov 14, 2016 Mary rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science

Alexander Von Humboldt is someone I don't recall ever learning about in school but probably should have. Born in the late 1700's, he was a far sighted adventurer, philosopher, scientist, and environmentalist.

As a young man, he used his personal wealth to travel to South America, climb the highest peaks and explore along the Amazon river. He advocated for all scientists and explorers to share information from their travels and studies. He was one of the first to sound the alarm about man's destr ...more

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Jan 19, 2023 Erica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, book-club, 2023

Wow! What a book. Imagine reading a non-fiction book about a somewhat long forgotten scientific hero of the first half of the 1800's only to find out how interwoven he was with everything and everyone - the last great polymath. Darwin got his ideas from Humboldt, John Muir likewise.... Charles Lyell, Goethe, Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, Simon Bolivar, the list goes on. Humboldt was the chief influencer of all. Kings called to him, presidents deferred to him, scientists bowed to him, school ch ...more

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Jul 01, 2023 Amanda rated it liked it

Shelves: pop-sci, history, for-book-club

I already knew about Humboldt from taking history of science courses in undergraduate, and my area of focus being ecology and evolutionary biology, but I definitely learned a lot from this book that I didn't know before. Like how he was one of the characters of all time, as the internet would put it. What a delightfully weird and brilliant man.

That being said, I think it could have used a harsher editor and been a little more focused in its scope for a general audience. It was a bit of a slog a ...more

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Dec 14, 2016 Kathleen (itpdx) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lwv-book-group, non-fiction

This is more than a biography of man, who has been somewhat forgotten in the US, Humboldt. It is the biography of an idea. His holistic view of nature very much influences the way we view the environment today. He was a hero to some of those who are well known in the field, like Darwin, Thoreau and Muir. Humboldt saw the interconnectness of living things, as well as the impacts of geography, climate, politics and economy on our world.

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