The Invention of Nature

Summary

A biography of the Prussian polymath Alexander von Humboldt, written for readers interested in the history of science and environmental thought. Wulf follows Humboldt's expeditions through South America and Russia and his vast scientific output, arguing that he was the first to see nature as an interconnected web threatened by human activity. She traces his influence on figures from Darwin and Thoreau to John Muir, restoring a forgotten thinker to the center of how we understand the living world.