具體描述
The acclaimed author of Founding Gardeners reveals the forgotten life of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world—and in the process created modern environmentalism.
Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. In North America, his name still graces four counties, thirteen towns, a river, parks, bays, lakes, and mountains. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, whether he was climbing the highest volcanoes in the world or racing through anthrax-infected Siberia or translating his research into bestselling publications that changed science and thinking. Among Humboldt’s most revolutionary ideas was a radical vision of nature, that it is a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone.
Now Andrea Wulf brings the man and his achievements back into focus: his daring expeditions and investigation of wild environments around the world and his discoveries of similarities between climate and vegetation zones on different continents. She also discusses his prediction of human-induced climate change, his remarkable ability to fashion poetic narrative out of scientific observation, and his relationships with iconic figures such as Simón Bolívar and Thomas Jefferson. Wulf examines how Humboldt’s writings inspired other naturalists and poets such as Darwin, Wordsworth, and Goethe, and she makes the compelling case that it was Humboldt’s influence that led John Muir to his ideas of natural preservation and that shaped Thoreau’s Walden.
With this brilliantly researched and compellingly written book, Andrea Wulf shows the myriad fundamental ways in which Humboldt created our understanding of the natural world, and she champions a renewed interest in this vital and lost player in environmental history and science.
用戶評價
##像講某個人的故事，串起來，看不下去
評分##洪堡的傳記幫助我們瞭解為什麼他曾被稱為大洪水後最偉大的人物，為什麼在19世紀初的歐洲他是僅次於拿破侖最有影響力的人。他改變瞭歐洲看待自然的觀念，深深影響瞭後代的人們觀察研究自然的方式。這是一次“理解我們今天為何如此思考自然的旅程”。
評分##玻利瓦爾居然也是受他啓發而發動瞭南美起義，做瓷器的wedgewood傢都是達爾文傢的世交，beagle號的船長居然是fitz roy，看名字阿根廷的最高峰就是他發現的。他不僅最早提齣瞭生態這個概念，這個詞也是他造的。巴拿馬運河他也建議瞭，此生最大遺憾就是想去喜馬拉雅而沒去成。有傳聞他是腐男，傢族這麼好的背景，德皇幾代都跟他傢有瓜葛，不僅哥哥一直做大臣，自己也在晚年被召迴做德皇的科學顧問，目的是為瞭那點工資。資助人無數，如果是現代估計是最牛投資人瞭，他要想入股啥最原始的發明那可是分分鍾的事。大自然作為一個選項一個變量，可以通過被探索發現來實現各自的目的，這本身就是洪堡的發明。據說地理上的探索也就是100年前被窮盡。其他更宏觀和更微觀的探索依然進行中
評分##像講某個人的故事，串起來，看不下去
評分##想要重讀丈量世界的時候，搜齣來瞭這本書，非常通史瞭。
評分##4.5.
評分##玻利瓦爾居然也是受他啓發而發動瞭南美起義，做瓷器的wedgewood傢都是達爾文傢的世交，beagle號的船長居然是fitz roy，看名字阿根廷的最高峰就是他發現的。他不僅最早提齣瞭生態這個概念，這個詞也是他造的。巴拿馬運河他也建議瞭，此生最大遺憾就是想去喜馬拉雅而沒去成。有傳聞他是腐男，傢族這麼好的背景，德皇幾代都跟他傢有瓜葛，不僅哥哥一直做大臣，自己也在晚年被召迴做德皇的科學顧問，目的是為瞭那點工資。資助人無數，如果是現代估計是最牛投資人瞭，他要想入股啥最原始的發明那可是分分鍾的事。大自然作為一個選項一個變量，可以通過被探索發現來實現各自的目的，這本身就是洪堡的發明。據說地理上的探索也就是100年前被窮盡。其他更宏觀和更微觀的探索依然進行中
評分##想要重讀丈量世界的時候，搜齣來瞭這本書，非常通史瞭。
評分##Knowledge does not chill the feelings because the senses and the intellect are connected.
