Am I the only one who hasn't heard of Alexander von Humboldt?

[catherine]

DH is from Humboldt Iowa.

Wow! Does he know who von Humboldt is?

[Rogar]

I read the same book. My Amazon purchase history shows 2016, so it could be a valid reason for not recalling details and an excuse to do a review.

[bae]

Is the book good?

[iris lilies]

Wow! Does he know who von Humboldt is?

yep, I just asked him “ There is a Humboldt in every state “he said.

[Tybee]

And he'd never heard of him?

[iris lilies]

And he'd never heard of him?

DH has heard of this Humboldt fellow.

[Rogar]

Is the book good?

My lingering impressions were pretty good, but possibly not great. It's been a while. It has good reviews.

[KayLR]

I have never heard of him, but have heard of the penguins and some of the geographical features. Interesting!

[catherine]

Is the book good?

I'm only about 25% into it. My review so far is, it's a very easy read--any high schooler moderately interested in the subject matter could do it. I think the insights are deceptively simple. For instance: when the author connects the overuse of timber as the main source of energy in 19th century South America with potential ecological disaster--you connect the dots with our reaction to fossil fuels today--but OTOH, so where is the energy for humans supposed to come from? If not timber, if not fossil fuels, do we celebrate or demonize sun and wind power? Or do we simply demonize our demand for energy consumption at a higher level? Can we consume less??

My reaction to the story of his life is similar to my reaction to the lives illustrated in books like McCullough's "1776"--there were a certain subset of people who, throughout history, were SO brave without knowing how brave they were. They make me ashamed for my frequent decisions to sit inside on a cold day only because it would mean I have to "suit up" for the weather, and 'nah, I'd rather not.'.

We don't know what we're capable of... that's my premature takeaway of this book... but beyond that, I am so grateful to von Humboldt for what he has done to advance the heart/mind paradigm of science and emotion with regards to nature--and the importance of recognizing how interrelated all life forms--organic and inorganic--are.