From the Bookshelf of Science and Inquiry…

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

* December 2016 - Wizards, Aliens
By Betsy , co-mod · 5 posts · 69 views

last updated Jan 25, 2017 01:23AM

* November 2016 - Neurotribes
By Betsy , co-mod · 9 posts · 107 views

last updated Nov 27, 2016 08:47PM

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May 14, 2016 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, academic-notations, biography, history

The book 'The Invention of Nature' is fascinating. It is more than a biography of Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859), who can be described as a polymath genius whose enthusiasm for travel and nature was as momentous for the development of as many branches of science that Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was because of his interest in physics. Yet, I have never heard of him until I read this book.

Some early Western 19th-century proto-scientists labored all of their life in bleak obscurity until only a ...more

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Mar 15, 2017 Bob Finch rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, biography, science

An excellent book about a remarkable man. The author's treatment borders on hero worship, for which she might be forgiven. After all Humbolt did change much about how scientists and the lay public viewed the world. And as one of the original popular science writers (which abound today), Humbolt helped increase the public's awareness and interest in the natural sciences, probably more than any single writer before him.

The book reads well and is copiously annotated (endnotes that don't interfere ...more

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