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A review by andrewspink
De uitvinder van de natuur: het avontuurlijke leven van Alexander von Humboldt by Andrea Wulf
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
3.5
In the beginning, the book was a bit heavy going, but after a while the narrative took over and I read it with pleasure. Humbolt was clearly an interesting and important man and having worked as a field ecologist, I could certainly relate to a lot of his exploits. In parts the book verges on an hagiography, with a stream of superlatives about how wonderful he was, and that was a sometimes a bit much. But, to be fair, Andrea Wulf also points out some of his shortcomings, like being disorganised and liking the sound of his own voice too much.
She is at pains to point to his active opposition to slavery (which was by no means normal at that time) but rather skates over the effect that he and his fellow naturalists had on preparing the ground for colonial exploitation. The treatment of Native Americans (bizarrely called 'Indiaanen' in my version, the Dutch translation) is condemned, but Wulf still presents it as obviously within the colonists' rights to conquer their land.
There are a huge number of footnotes, but (fortunately or otherwise) they are missing in my e-book. Also the publisher has not taken care that the photos are properly presented in the e-book, they are so small as to be almost useless, which is a pity.
I was not so sure about the last two chapters. It is good to see that he also influenced people after his death, but I did get the impression that it was wandering off topic and the relationship between e.g. Walden and Humbolt was perhaps less direct than Wulf implies. The book is very long, it might have been better to have stopped with Humbolt's death.
When I was a student, studying botany and ecology, I think Humbolt might have been mentioned in passing, but no more than that. This book does a great job in showing what a contribution he made and how it important it is to remember that. In many ways he was a very modern thinker and Wulf has done us a favour by reminding us of his life and work.
She is at pains to point to his active opposition to slavery (which was by no means normal at that time) but rather skates over the effect that he and his fellow naturalists had on preparing the ground for colonial exploitation. The treatment of Native Americans (bizarrely called 'Indiaanen' in my version, the Dutch translation) is condemned, but Wulf still presents it as obviously within the colonists' rights to conquer their land.
There are a huge number of footnotes, but (fortunately or otherwise) they are missing in my e-book. Also the publisher has not taken care that the photos are properly presented in the e-book, they are so small as to be almost useless, which is a pity.
I was not so sure about the last two chapters. It is good to see that he also influenced people after his death, but I did get the impression that it was wandering off topic and the relationship between e.g. Walden and Humbolt was perhaps less direct than Wulf implies. The book is very long, it might have been better to have stopped with Humbolt's death.
When I was a student, studying botany and ecology, I think Humbolt might have been mentioned in passing, but no more than that. This book does a great job in showing what a contribution he made and how it important it is to remember that. In many ways he was a very modern thinker and Wulf has done us a favour by reminding us of his life and work.