Product Overview
La esplndida biografa de Alexander von Humboldt, el hroe perdido de la ciencia y padre de la ecologa.
La invencin de la naturaleza revela la extraordinaria vida del visionario naturalista alemn Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) y cmo cre una nueva forma de entender la naturaleza.
Humboldt fue un intrpido explorador y el cientfico ms famoso de su poca. Su agitada vida estuvo repleta de aventuras y descubrimientos: escal los volcanes ms altos del mundo, rem por el Orinoco y recorri una Siberia infestada de ntrax. Capaz de percibir la naturaleza como una fuerza global interconectada, Humboldt descubri similitudes entre distintas zonas climticas de todo el mundo, y previ el peligro de un cambio climtico provocado por el hombre.
Convirti la observacin cientfica en narrativa potica, y sus escritos inspiraron no solo a naturalistas y escritores como Darwin, Wordsworth y Goethe, sino tambin a polticos como Jefferson o Simn Bolvar. Adems, fueron las ideas de Humboldt las que llevaron a John Muir a perseverar en sus teoras, y a Thoreau a escribir su Walden. Wulf rastrea la influencia de Humboldt en las grandes mentes de su tiempo, a las que inspir en mbitos como la revolucin, la teora de evolucin, la ecologa, la conservacin, el arte y la literatura.
La invencin de la naturaleza est entre los mejores libros del ao segn The New York Times, The Independent y Publishers Weekly entre otros.
Reseas:
Una lectura sensacional. El estupendo nuevo libro de Andrea Wulf se atreve con la figura de Alexander von Humboldt. La invencin de la naturaleza es un elogio de altsima calidad a una figura cautivadora.
Simon Winder, The Guardian
Un libro emocionante. [...] Es imposible leerLa invencin 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 investigacin deWulf tiene dimensiones casihumboldtianas.
New York Review of Books
Consigue su objetivo de rescatar la reputacin de Humboldt de la grieta en la que l y muchos otros escritores y cientficos alemanes cayeron despus de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
The Independent
Wulf demuestra que Humboldt fue un autntico visionario, cuya perspectiva es hoy ms pertinente que nunca.
Booklist
Una biografa brillantemente escrita. Como demuestra este maravilloso libro, la figura de Humboldt debera 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 worldand 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 (17691859) 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 Humboldts 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 Simn Bolvar and Thomas Jefferson. Wulf examines how Humboldts writings inspired other naturalists and poets such as Darwin, Wordsworth, and Goethe, and she makes the compelling case that it was Humboldts influence that led John Muir to his ideas of natural preservation and that shaped Thoreaus 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.
