The Humboldt Current
Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism
by Aaron Sachs · 2007
ISBN: 0143111922 9780143111924
Category: History / United States / 19th Century
Page count: 512
<b>A masterly and beautifully written account of the impact of Alexander von Humboldt on nineteenth-century American history and culture</b> <br><br> The naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) achieved unparalleled fame in his own time. Today, however, he and his enormous legacy to American thought are virtually unknown. In <i>The Humboldt Current</i>, Aaron Sachs traces Humboldt's pervasive influence on American history through examining the work of four explorers—J. N. Reynolds, Clarence King, George Wallace, and John Muir—who embraced Humboldt's idea of a "chain of connection" uniting all peoples and all environments. A skillful blend of narrative and interpretation that also discusses Humboldt's influence on Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Melville, and Poe, <i>The Humboldt Current</i> offers a colorful, passionate, and superbly written reinterpretation of nineteenth-century American history.