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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 and after the first 9 chapters I switched to audiobook just to get through it in time for book club. It's longer than it really needs to be; too many tangent chapters following other historical figures who were influenced by Humboldt in iway too much unnecessary detail. It's exhaustively researched and annotated with something like 200-300 pages of end notes, in addition to the footnotes. Closer to a readable academic text than a pop sci history book.

Although every single other person in my work's book club loved it, so I'm either being too hard on it or they're not a representative sample. Which is entirely possible considering we all work for a conservation organization (although nobody else had heard of Humboldt prior to the book). Though I suppose if you compare it to reading Humboldt's or Darwin's original texts, it's still a very easy read and not horribly long (if you ignore the end notes). I've read the entire original text of the Origin of Species and wouldn't recommend it to anyone not studying in the field.

On the whole, definitely interesting content about an interesting figure in the history of scientific thought and environmentalism.