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. NATIONAL BEST SELLER One of the New York Times 10 Best
Books of the Year Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize The James Wright Award for Nature
Writing the Costa Biography Award the Royal Geographic Society's Ness Award the Sigurd F.
Olson Nature Writing Award Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction
the Royal Society Science Book Prize the Kirkus Prize Prize for Nonfiction the Independent
Bookshop Week Book Award A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times The Atlantic The
Economist Nature Jezebel Kirkus Reviews Publishers Weekly New Scientist The Independent
The Telegraph The Sunday Times The Evening Standard The Spectator Alexander von Humboldt
(1769-1859) was the most famous scientist of his age a visionary German naturalist and
polymath whose discoveries forever changed the way we understand the natural world. Among his
most revolutionary ideas was a radical conception of nature as a complex and interconnected
global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone. In North America Humboldt's
name still graces towns counties parks bays lakes mountains and a river. And yet the man
has been all but forgotten. In this illuminating biography Andrea Wulf brings Humboldt's
extraordinary life back into focus: his prediction of human-induced climate change his daring
expeditions to the highest peaks of South America and to the anthrax-infected steppes of
Siberia his relationships with iconic figures including Simón Bolívar and Thomas Jefferson
and the lasting influence of his writings on Darwin Wordsworth Goethe Muir Thoreau and
many others. Brilliantly researched and stunningly written The Invention of Nature reveals the
myriad ways in which Humboldt's ideas form the foundation of modern environmentalism-and
reminds us why they are as prescient and vital as ever.
