The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf
342 pages
Published 2015
Read from April 26 to April 29
Rating: ★★★½ out of 5
I kept seeing this book on "best book of the year" lists, so I went into it with unrealistic expectations. Wulf explores a fascinating period of intellectual development, the cusp
between the Enlightenment and the Romantic period, and Humboldt himself
is a significant character well deserving of scrutiny and publicity.
Wulf traces Humboldt's influence on the thinking and work of historical
figures ranging from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to Simón Bolívar to John
Muir, and on movements ranging from conservation and environmentalism to
Art Nouveau and nature writing. It is a perfectly serviceable scientific biography, providing far more scientific and contemporary context than Chrysalis, for example, but I've been spoiled lately by history books written with considerably more verve and personality. Invention is written in what I would call the default historical biography voice: informative, bland, interchangeable. It lacks the snarkiness of Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, the authoritative skepticism of SPQR, the imaginative flourishes of The Witches. Wulf's prose flows well but tends to be as bland as noodles.
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