Paperback, 584 pages
Español language
Published March 2, 2017 by TAURUS.
La invención de la naturaleza revela la extraordinaria vida del visionario naturalista alemán Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) y cómo creó una nueva forma de entender la naturaleza.
Humboldt fue un intrépido explorador y el científico más famoso de su época. Su agitada vida estuvo repleta de aventuras y descubrimientos: escaló los volcanes más altos del mundo, remó por el Orinoco y recorrió una Siberia infestada de ántrax. Capaz de percibir la naturaleza como una fuerza global interconectada, Humboldt descubrió similitudes entre distintas zonas climáticas de todo el mundo, y previó el peligro de un cambio climático provocado por el hombre.
Convirtió la observación científica en narrativa poética, y sus escritos inspiraron no solo a naturalistas y escritores como Darwin, Wordsworth y Goethe, sino también a políticos como Jefferson o Simón Bolívar. Además, fueron las ideas de Humboldt las que llevaron a John Muir a perseverar en sus teorías, y a …
La invención de la naturaleza revela la extraordinaria vida del visionario naturalista alemán Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) y cómo creó una nueva forma de entender la naturaleza.
Humboldt fue un intrépido explorador y el científico más famoso de su época. Su agitada vida estuvo repleta de aventuras y descubrimientos: escaló los volcanes más altos del mundo, remó por el Orinoco y recorrió una Siberia infestada de ántrax. Capaz de percibir la naturaleza como una fuerza global interconectada, Humboldt descubrió similitudes entre distintas zonas climáticas de todo el mundo, y previó el peligro de un cambio climático provocado por el hombre.
Convirtió la observación científica en narrativa poética, y sus escritos inspiraron no solo a naturalistas y escritores como Darwin, Wordsworth y Goethe, sino también a políticos como Jefferson o Simón Bolívar. Además, fueron las ideas de Humboldt las que llevaron a John Muir a perseverar en sus teorías, y a Thoreau a escribir su Walden. Wulf rastrea la influencia de Humboldt en las grandes mentes de su tiempo, a las que inspiró en ámbitos como la revolución, la teoría de evolución, la ecología, la conservación, el arte y la literatura.
A monster of a book. Apart from knowing Humboldt’s name from the off geographical feature I knew nothing of this man and his epic life. So much of what we now know about nature stems from his activities and it is a measure of this that 50% into the book is his death - the rest is tracing the effects of his work on further household names. Not an easy read.....
This could have been a straightforward biography. It could have followed Humbolt as the traveled to South America and meticulously recorded and collects plants, animals, rocks and even measured the blueness of the sky. It could have recounted the people he knew and the books that he wrote.
The Invention of Nature does all of that, but it is so much more. This is the history of an idea. It is an idea that we've grown so used to that we don't think about it any more than a fish thinks about water.
Wulf takes us on Humbolt's journey to South America to the top of Chimborazo where he looks down realizes that everything is interconnected, that we can't truly understand what is happening in the world by boiling things down to just bare facts, that paying attention our emotional response to the world helps us understand the world.
Wulf …
This could have been a straightforward biography. It could have followed Humbolt as the traveled to South America and meticulously recorded and collects plants, animals, rocks and even measured the blueness of the sky. It could have recounted the people he knew and the books that he wrote.
The Invention of Nature does all of that, but it is so much more. This is the history of an idea. It is an idea that we've grown so used to that we don't think about it any more than a fish thinks about water.
Wulf takes us on Humbolt's journey to South America to the top of Chimborazo where he looks down realizes that everything is interconnected, that we can't truly understand what is happening in the world by boiling things down to just bare facts, that paying attention our emotional response to the world helps us understand the world.
Wulf traces both Humbolt's influences and those he influenced, but is those he influenced that is the most remarkable. From Darwin to Thoreau to Muir, traces Humbolt's grand ideas through to the birth of the beginnings of the environmentalism. She makes a powerful argument that we still have much to learn from Humbolt.
As thrilling as Humbolt's travels in South America are, Wulf's telling of the journey of his idea is more more thrilling still.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who is fascinated with science, but still looks up at the stars with wonder. You will find kindrid spirits in Humbolt and those who were inspired by him
This a wonderful book about one of the most greatest polymaths and inter-disciplinarians of all time.
Alexander von Humboldt is a forgotten hero of science, a restless explorer, a passionate scientist, “a man who sought to see and understand everything” and could speak to the soul of people.
