Book cover of Humboldt and the Cosmos

Book description

Incredible account of Humbolt's journeys through South America.

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Why read it?

1 author picked Humboldt and the Cosmos as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Between 1799 and 1804 the Prussian polymath, Baron Alexander von Humboldt, explored South America and Mexico, studying and collecting from the natural world. He devoted the next 30 years to writing and publishing scientific treatises on his discoveries in physical geography and natural history. He established the concept of plant geography. In the final years of his long life, he worked to publish Cosmos, a work of enormous scope and depth—his vision of the nature of the world—and fundamental to the study of the history of natural history. I treasure in my library several of von Humboldt’s works and…

From Michael's list on the history of natural history.

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