The Invention of Nature (1000 Books to Read)

Wow! I loved this book. I learned about the "Father of Environmentalism"!  He was way ahead of his time - late 1700s, early 1800s!

I like to follow journeys in books. Wikipedia was helpful for this. 

I knew that there was a county and city in California named Humboldt, and they were named after him!

Quotes:

Nature, Humboldt realized, was a web of life and a global force. He was, a colleague later said, the first to understand that everything was interwoven as with ‘a thousand threads’. This new idea of nature was to change the way people understood the world.  (p. 87)

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

As Andrea Wulf makes clear in this marvelous biography, Alexander von Humboldt’s holistic view of nature “as a network of forces and interrelationships” played a significant role in advancing ecological thinking and thereby gave rise to modern conceptions of the environment. Detailing with verve and erudition Humboldt’s exploits as an explorer in far-flung corners of the world, Wulf also reveals the extraordinary extent of his reputation in his own lifetime. In his day (born in 1769, he died ninety years later), he was the most famous scientist in the world and an international celebrity. This long, rich, information-packed biography repays leisurely attention at the same time as it stimulates one’s thinking about fundamental issues. “Humboldt was not so much interested in finding new isolated facts but in connecting them,” Wulf writes. A reader can thankfully say the same of the author of this delightful book.