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The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World, Andrea Wulf. Wulf wants you to know how great (and underappreciated, in the English-speaking world at least) Alexander von Humboldt was! Really useful for filling in the gaps in my knowledge about who Alexander von Humboldt was, what he did, who he influenced, and why he was important. Generally quite readable, though it slows down at the end when we get short chapters on the people von Humboldt influenced
Mostly not focused on technical science writing side of things; I found the explanation of the 'magnetic equator' confusing and had to go and look it up to get a better explanation (to put on my mathematician hat for a moment, it's the locus of points where the magnetic field lines are horizontal). I'm disappointed that there wasn't more Mendelssohn family (one mention of Fanny writing about how von Humboldt was giving public lectures open to women), but I can't really expect Andrea Wulf to cater to my niche interest. I also would have liked to learned more about Wilhelm von Humboldt, who was sidelined and mainly showed up in relationship to his brother. (Also not enough Humboldt penguins!)
I can't judge as to the author's thesis as to whether von Humboldt invented nature/ecology/etc, and the whole thing felt a bit hagiographic, but well, Alexander von Humboldt was quite a person. I think I've gotten a bit distracted from the whole JS&MN crossover thing which was partly what got me into this, though Jonathan Strange meeting Alexander von Humboldt would be interesting; they are Great Men/Heroic Figures in the same mold and probably wouldn't get along well at all -- and they totally could have met in London, they had the same publisher!
Index, a History of The, by Dennis Duncan. Finally my library e-book hold came in on this one, just in time to distract me from the election results. I am absolutely the target audience for this book, and enjoying it so far, though I don't have too much to say right now.
Mostly not focused on technical science writing side of things; I found the explanation of the 'magnetic equator' confusing and had to go and look it up to get a better explanation (to put on my mathematician hat for a moment, it's the locus of points where the magnetic field lines are horizontal). I'm disappointed that there wasn't more Mendelssohn family (one mention of Fanny writing about how von Humboldt was giving public lectures open to women), but I can't really expect Andrea Wulf to cater to my niche interest. I also would have liked to learned more about Wilhelm von Humboldt, who was sidelined and mainly showed up in relationship to his brother. (Also not enough Humboldt penguins!)
I can't judge as to the author's thesis as to whether von Humboldt invented nature/ecology/etc, and the whole thing felt a bit hagiographic, but well, Alexander von Humboldt was quite a person. I think I've gotten a bit distracted from the whole JS&MN crossover thing which was partly what got me into this, though Jonathan Strange meeting Alexander von Humboldt would be interesting; they are Great Men/Heroic Figures in the same mold and probably wouldn't get along well at all -- and they totally could have met in London, they had the same publisher!
Index, a History of The, by Dennis Duncan. Finally my library e-book hold came in on this one, just in time to distract me from the election results. I am absolutely the target audience for this book, and enjoying it so far, though I don't have too much to say right now.