Naturaliste, géographe, explorateur, Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) est le grand scientifique des Lumières.
Il a donné son nom à des villes, des rivières, des chaînes de montagnes, à un courant océanique d'Amérique du Sud, à un manchot, à un calmar géant - il existe même une Mare Humboldtianum sur la Lune.
Sous la plume d'Andrea Wulf, sa vie se lit comme un roman d'aventures : Humboldt a organisé des expéditions. Napoléon le jalousait ; Bolívar s'est imprégné de ses idées pour mener à bien sa révolution ; Darwin a embarqué sur le Beagle à cause de lui ; et le capitaine Nemo de Jules Verne possédait tous ses livres dans sa bibliothèque.
À une époque où l'on pouvait embrasser toutes les connaissances scientifiques, Humboldt n'a cessé d'arpenter le monde pour en déceler les secrets et les expliquer. Il prédisait les changements climatiques causés par l'homme. Ses idées ont révolutionné la science, la politique, l'art et la théorie de l'évolution.
In the 1790s an extraordinary group of friends changed the world. Disappointed by the French Revolution''s rapid collapse into tyranny, what they wanted was nothing less than a revolution of the mind. The rulers of Europe had ordered their peoples how to think and act for too long. Based in the small German town of Jena, through poetry, drama, philosophy and science, they transformed the way we think about ourselves and the world around us. They were the first Romantics. Their way of understanding the world still frames our lives and being.We''re still empowered by their daring leap into the self. We still think with their minds, see with their imagination and feel with their emotions. We also still walk the same tightrope between meaningful self-fulfilment and destructive narcissism, between the rights of the individual and our role as a member of our community and our responsibilities towards future generations who will inhabit this planet. This extraordinary group of friends changed our world. It is impossible to imagine our lives, thoughts and understanding without the foundation of their ground-breaking ideas.
WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2016 'A thrilling adventure story' Bill Bryson 'Dazzling' Literary Review 'Brilliant' Sunday Express 'Extraordinary and gripping' New Scientist 'A superb biography' The Economist 'An exhilarating armchair voyage' GILES MILTON, Mail on Sunday Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is the great lost scientist - more things are named after him than anyone else. There are towns, rivers, mountain ranges, the ocean current that runs along the South American coast, there's a penguin, a giant squid - even the Mare Humboldtianum on the moon. His colourful adventures read like something out of a Boy's Own story: Humboldt explored deep into the rainforest, climbed the world's highest volcanoes and inspired princes and presidents, scientists and poets alike. Napoleon was jealous of him; Simon Bolivar's revolution was fuelled by his ideas; Darwin set sail on the Beagle because of Humboldt; and Jules Verne's Captain Nemo owned all his many books. He simply was, as one contemporary put it, 'the greatest man since the Deluge'. Taking us on a fantastic voyage in his footsteps - racing across anthrax-infected Russia or mapping tropical rivers alive with crocodiles - Andrea Wulf shows why his life and ideas remain so important today. Humboldt predicted human-induced climate change as early as 1800, and The Invention of Nature traces his ideas as they go on to revolutionize and shape science, conservation, nature writing, politics, art and the theory of evolution. He wanted to know and understand everything and his way of thinking was so far ahead of his time that it's only coming into its own now. Alexander von Humboldt really did invent the way we see nature.
In the 1790s an extraordinary group of friends changed the world. Disappointed by the French Revolution''s rapid collapse into tyranny, what they wanted was nothing less than a revolution of the mind. The rulers of Europe had ordered their peoples how to think and act for too long. Based in the small German town of Jena, through poetry, drama, philosophy and science, they transformed the way we think about ourselves and the world around us. They were the first Romantics. Their way of understanding the world still frames our lives and being.We''re still empowered by their daring leap into the self. We still think with their minds, see with their imagination and feel with their emotions. We also still walk the same tightrope between meaningful self-fulfilment and destructive narcissism, between the rights of the individual and our role as a member of our community and our responsibilities towards future generations who will inhabit this planet. This extraordinary group of friends changed our world. It is impossible to imagine our lives, thoughts and understanding without the foundation of their ground-breaking ideas.
La esplendida biografía de Alexander von Humboldt, el heroe perdido de la ciencia y padre de la ecología. 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 científico 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 científica en narrativa poetica, y sus escritos inspiraron no solo a naturalistas y escritores como Darwin, Wordsworth y Goethe, sino tambien a políticos como Jefferson o Simon Bolívar. Ademas, fueron las ideas de Humboldt las que llevaron a John Muir a perseverar en sus teorías, 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 teoría de evolucion, la ecología, la conservacion, el arte y la literatura. La invencion de la naturaleza esta entre los mejores libros del año segun The New York Times, The Independent y Publishers Weekly entre otros. Reseñas: '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 altísima 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 científicos 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 biografía brillantemente escrita. Como demuestra este maravilloso libro, la figura de Humboldt debería 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 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.
Meet Alexander von Humboldt: the great lost scientist, visionary, thinker and daring explorer; the man who first predicted climate change, who has more things named after him than anyone else (including a sea on the moon), and who has inspired generations of writers, thinkers and revolutionaries . . . In The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt , 88-year-old Humboldt takes us on a fantastic voyage, back through his life, tracing his footsteps around the rainforests, mountains and crocodile-infested rivers of South America when he was a young man. Travel with him to Venezuela, to Lake Valencia, the Llanos and the Orinocco, and follow him during his time in Cuba, Cartagena, Bogota and his one-year trek across the Andes, as he climbs the volcano Chimborazo, explores Inca monuments, and visits Washington D.C. to meet Thomas Jefferson and campaign for the abolition of slavery. With encounters with indigenous peoples, missionaries, colonists and jaguars, and incorporating Humboldt's own sketches, drawings and manuscripts, this is a thrilling adventure story of history's most daring scientist.