La esplendida biografia de Alexander von Humboldt, el heroe perdido de la ciencia y padre de la ecologia.
La invencion de la naturaleza revela la extraordinaria vida del visionario naturalista aleman Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) y como creo una nueva forma de entender la naturaleza.
Humboldt fue un intrepido explorador y el cientifico mas famoso de su epoca. Su agitada vida estuvo repleta de aventuras y descubrimientos: escalo los volcanes mas altos del mundo, remo por el Orinoco y recorrio una Siberia infestada de antrax. Capaz de percibir la naturaleza como una fuerza global interconectada, Humboldt descubrio similitudes entre distintas zonas climaticas de todo el mundo, y previo el peligro de un cambio climatico provocado por el hombre.
Convirtio la observacion cientifica en narrativa poetica, y sus escritos inspiraron no solo a naturalistas y escritores como Darwin, Wordsworth y Goethe, sino tambien a politicos como Jefferson o Simon Bolivar. Ademas, fueron las ideas de Humboldt las que llevaron a John Muir a perseverar en sus teorias, y a Thoreau a escribir su Walden. Wulf rastrea la influencia de Humboldt en las grandes mentes de su tiempo, a las que inspiro en ambitos como la revolucion, la teoria de evolucion, la ecologia, la conservacion, el arte y la literatura.
La invencion de la naturaleza esta entre los mejores libros del ano segun The New York Times, The Independent y Publishers Weekly entre otros.
Resenas:
Una lectura sensacional. El estupendo nuevo libro de Andrea Wulf se atreve con la figura de Alexander von Humboldt. La invencion de la naturaleza es un elogio de altisima calidad a una figura cautivadora.
Simon Winder, The Guardian
Un libro emocionante. [...] Es imposible leerLa invencion de la naturaleza sin contraer la fiebre Humboldt.Wulf tiene el poder de volvernos a todoshumboldtianos. Por momentos se lee como literatura de aventuras, y la investigacion deWulf tiene dimensiones casihumboldtianas.
New York Review of Books
Consigue su objetivo de rescatar la reputacion de Humboldt de la grieta en la que el y muchos otros escritores y cientificos alemanes cayeron despues de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
The Independent
Wulf demuestra que Humboldt fue un autentico visionario, cuya perspectiva es hoy mas pertinente que nunca.
Booklist
Una biografia brillantemente escrita. Como demuestra este maravilloso libro, la figura de Humboldt deberia incorporarse a toda prisa en todos los programas educativos de la Tierra.
The Scotsman
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
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 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 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 Simon Bolivar 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.