Book completed

[eve_prime]

The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World, by Andrea Wulf. This book was quite a lovely reading experience. Humboldt used to be one of the most famous people in the Western world. Around 1800, as a young man, he went on an exploration of South and Middle America - the Orinoco rainforest, the northern half of the Andes, Cuba, and parts of Mexico - and while he was there he made massive collections of notes and measurements. When he got back to Europe, he was a sensation, because his new innovation wasn't a specific discovery but the realization that everything is interconnected. Basically, he invented ecology. He was way ahead of his time - he realized that various human activities were causing climate change; he also realized that colonialism was exploitive. And because his writing and speaking style involved making things vivid and visceral - infusing what he had to say with emotion - people found him fascinating. He was a huge influence on Darwin, Thoreau, Marsh, Haeckel, and Muir, and they each get a chapter. He was also apparently friends with Simon Bolivar and helped the latter realize that he didn't want to spend his life spending money in Paris but instead wanted to liberate his people from Spain. The author gave more attention to Bolivar than one might think he merited, given that this was a book on Humboldt, but it was interesting. The only complaint I had, which is pretty minor, is that on page 52 she implies that Humboldt had to cross the equator when his ship sailed from the Canary Islands to Venezuela, which surely he did not. I enjoyed the book very much and didn't want it to end.