Alexander von Humboldt: How the Most Famous Scientist of the Romantic Age Found the Soul of Nature

Provides nice detail about Humboldt for those who had to read his works during historiography seminars. A bit too much detail about people that had only a fleeting impact on his life. But very detailed and worth the read: which would be pretty quick for a historian, not sure about the general public (I don't mean that to sound pedantic) . But again, a great read.

Doing a Humboldt study so this book fit right in. Also, book arrived in good condition & quickly.Now to further my study. Thanks

THE PSYCHE OF A SCIENTIST, WRITTEN BY A LITERARY WRITER imo.

What a terrific and well-written biography. Alexander von Humboldt was an interesting and interested explorer and thinker. His was a global, one-world view in which all that surrounds humans inpacts on animal, plant, and human behavior. Sadly, his travels and exposure to different parts of the world led to ideas and theories, but not necessarily testable. There was not much focus to his activities; many ideas appear to be undeveloped hypotheses. It appears his greatest skill was an ability to translate and explain science; a valuable and rare trait in any generation.

I was excited about reading this book but I did not find it as interesting as I had hoped or as the reviews made it sound. Way too much name-dropping about people he hung out with and knew. Never got the feeling that I knew him.

Decent book. May promise more than it delivers. The soul of nature is evasive.

I wanted to like this book since I'm familiar with impact Humbolt had on the natural world, but this book was just to dry and boring too struggle through. As another review remarked, there was too much (boring) emphasis on the people with whom Humbolt interacted and not nearly enough on H. himself. Illustrations would have offered some relief to the text.

It was an educational overview of this polymaths life, but only scratched the surface of this individuals great mind in the Romantic period.