Darwin and Humboldt: Their Lives and Work PDF Download

Author: Thomas Henry Huxley
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3385305349
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 66

View

Book Description
Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.

Author: Thomas Henry Huxley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Naturalists
Languages : en
Pages : 60

View

Book Description

Author: Andrea Wulf
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0345806298
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 586

View

Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • 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. "Vivid and exciting.... Wulf’s pulsating account brings this dazzling figure back into a dazzling, much-deserved focus.” —The Boston Globe Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was the most famous scientist of his age, a visionary German naturalist and polymath whose discoveries forever changed the way we understand the natural world. Among his most revolutionary ideas was a radical conception of nature as a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone. In North America, Humboldt’s name still graces towns, counties, parks, bays, lakes, mountains, and a river. And yet the man has been all but forgotten. In this illuminating biography, Andrea Wulf brings Humboldt’s extraordinary life back into focus: his prediction of human-induced climate change; his daring expeditions to the highest peaks of South America and to the anthrax-infected steppes of Siberia; his relationships with iconic figures, including Simón Bolívar and Thomas Jefferson; and the lasting influence of his writings on Darwin, Wordsworth, Goethe, Muir, Thoreau, and many others. Brilliantly researched and stunningly written, The Invention of Nature reveals the myriad ways in which Humboldt’s ideas form the foundation of modern environmentalism—and reminds us why they are as prescient and vital as ever.

Author: Andrea Wulf
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 1524747378
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 274

View

Book Description
A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR From the New York Times bestselling author of The Invention of Nature, comes a breathtakingly illustrated and brilliantly evocative recounting of Alexander Von Humboldt's five year expedition in South America. Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, but his most revolutionary idea was a radical vision of nature as a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone. His theories and ideas were profoundly influenced by a five-year exploration of South America. Now Andrea Wulf partners with artist Lillian Melcher to bring this daring expedition to life, complete with excerpts from Humboldt's own diaries, atlases, and publications. She gives us an intimate portrait of the man who predicted human-induced climate change, fashioned poetic narrative out of scientific observation, and influenced iconic figures such as Simón Bolívar, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, and John Muir. This gorgeous account of the expedition not only shows how Humboldt honed his groundbreaking understanding of the natural world but also illuminates the man and his passions.

Author: Instaread
Publisher: Instaread
ISBN: 1944195726
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 36

View

Book Description
The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf | Summary & Analysis Preview: The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf is a biography of Alexander von Humboldt, a Prussian naturalist born in 1769. Humboldt had an older brother, Wilhelm. Their father died when they were young, and their mother was emotionally detached from her sons. Alexander and Wilhelm received exacting educations. Alexander became interested in exploration and science, but his mother pressured him to become a civil servant, so he attended a mining academy to become a mine inspector while conducting his own botanical research. He invented new tools for miners, published books on subterranean plants and rocks, and experimented with the effect of electricity on the nervous system. Wilhelm introduced Alexander von Humboldt to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the renowned author, and they formed a close friendship based on a mutual interest in the intersection of science and art. Humboldt gained an appreciation for aesthetic perspective from Goethe, and Goethe received the latest in scientific information from Humboldt… PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Instaread Summary & Analysis of The Invention of Nature: • Summary of book • Introduction to the Important People in the book • Analysis of the Themes and Author’s Style

Author: Laura Dassow Walls
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226871843
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 421

View

Book Description
Explorer, scientist, writer, and humanist, Alexander von Humboldt was the most famous intellectual of the age that began with Napoleon and ended with Darwin. With Cosmos, the book that crowned his career, Humboldt offered to the world his vision of humans and nature as integrated halves of a single whole. In it, Humboldt espoused the idea that, while the universe of nature exists apart from human purpose, its beauty and order, the very idea of the whole it composes, are human achievements: cosmos comes into being in the dance of world and mind, subject and object, science and poetry. Humboldt’s science laid the foundations for ecology and inspired the theories of his most important scientific disciple, Charles Darwin. In the United States, his ideas shaped the work of Emerson, Thoreau, Poe, and Whitman. They helped spark the American environmental movement through followers like John Muir and George Perkins Marsh. And they even bolstered efforts to free the slaves and honor the rights of Indians. Laura Dassow Walls here traces Humboldt’s ideas for Cosmos to his 1799 journey to the Americas, where he first experienced the diversity of nature and of the world’s peoples—and envisioned a new cosmopolitanism that would link ideas, disciplines, and nations into a global web of knowledge and cultures. In reclaiming Humboldt’s transcultural and transdisciplinary project, Walls situates America in a lively and contested field of ideas, actions, and interests, and reaches beyond to a new worldview that integrates the natural and social sciences, the arts, and the humanities. To the end of his life, Humboldt called himself “half an American,” but ironically his legacy has largely faded in the United States. The Passage to Cosmos will reintroduce this seminal thinker to a new audience and return America to its rightful place in the story of his life, work, and enduring legacy.

Author: T. H. Huxley
Publisher: Forgotten Books
ISBN: 9780267712649
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 54

View

Book Description
Excerpt from Darwin and Humboldt: Their Lives and Work In the beginning of these remarks the attempt has already been made to do justice to the mark Mr. Darwin has left on the modern study of geo graphical botany (and that implies a corresponding influence on phyto palaeontology). To measure the in fluence which he has had on any other branches of botany, it is sufh cient to quote again from the Origin of Species The structure of each part of each species, for whatever purpose used, will be the sum of the many inherited changes through which the species has passed during its successive adaptations to changed habits and conditions of life. These words may almost be said to be the key-note of sacns's well-known text book, which is the most authoritative modern exposition of the facts and principles of plant-structure and func tion; and there is probably not a botanical class-room or work-room in the civilized world where they are not the animating principle of both instruction and research. Nothwithstanding the extent and variety of his botanical work, Mr. Darwin always disclaimed any right to be regarded as a professed botanist. He turned his attention 'to plants doubtless because they were con venient objects for studying organic phenomena in their least complicated forms; and this point of view, which, if one may use the expression without disrespect, had something of the amateur about it, was in itself of the greatest importance. For, from not being, till he took up any point, fa miliar with the literature bearing on it, his mind was absolutely free from any prepossession, He was never afraid of his facts or of framing any hypothesis, however startling, which seemed to explain them, However much weight he attributed to inherit ance as a factor in organic phenomena, tradition went for nothing in studying them. In any one else such an atti tude would have produced much work t at was crude and rash. But Mr. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Author: Louis Agassiz
Publisher: Franklin Classics
ISBN: 9780341684398
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 48

View

Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Author: Charles Morris Lansley
Publisher: Peter Lang Limited, International Academic Publishers
ISBN: 9781787071384
Category : Evolution (Biology)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

View

Book Description
This book argues that the Romantic movement influenced Charles Darwin and his theory of natural selection. Given that Darwin has traditionally been placed within Victorian naturalism, these Romantic connections have often been overlooked. The book cleverly follows Darwin's narrative in a search for traces of history in both science and poetry.

Author: Alexander von Humboldt
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226360687
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

View

Book Description
The legacy of Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) looms large over the natural sciences. His 1799–1804 research expedition to Central and South America with botanist Aimé Bonpland set the course for the great scientific surveys of the nineteenth century, and inspired such essayists and artists as Emerson, Goethe, Thoreau, Poe, and Church. The chronicles of the expedition were published in Paris after Humboldt’s return, and first among them was the 1807 “Essay on the Geography of Plants.” Among the most cited writings in natural history, after the works of Darwin and Wallace, this work appears here for the first time in a complete English-language translation. Covering far more than its title implies, it represents the first articulation of an integrative “science of the earth, ” encompassing most of today’s environmental sciences. Ecologist Stephen T. Jackson introduces the treatise and explains its enduring significance two centuries after its publication.