January Not Fiction Book Discussions

Our first book of 2017, The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf, helps us understand how we came to see the universe as we do today, as an interconnected whole, a web of life, upon which humans can have a large and potentially devastating impact. Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was one of the last great polymaths, a holistic and synthetic thinker whose work as a scientist, explorer, writer, and public figure gave us insight into the connections between climate, geography, vegetation, agriculture, and industry that became the foundations of many of today's natural sciences and the modern environmental movement. The list of people he knew and influenced reads like a who's who list of the 19th century: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Simon Bolivar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Charles Darwin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and others. Yet, as Wulf points out, today Humboldt himself is nearly forgotten, even as his insistence that knowledge and wonder should be paired may be more important than ever in facing the effect of the Anthropocene on our planet.

What do you think? What did you know about Humboldt before reading The Invention of Nature? How much of your worldview do you think Humboldt's ideas helped to shape? To what degree had you taken this worldview for granted? What characteristics made Humboldt not only successful in his own career but also influential on other scientists, artists, and writers? One of the most interesting things about Humboldt's life was how influential his ideas were and how beloved a figure he became, not just to other scientists, but also to the general public. Today we celebrate actors, musicians, and sports figures more so than scientists. Why do you think this is? In her Epilogue, Wulf notes that we should care about Humboldt and his ideas because of his insight "that we can only truly understand nature by using our imagination. . . . This connection between knowledge, art and poetry, between science and emotions--the 'deeply-seated bond', as Humboldt called it--is more important than ever before. Humboldt was driven by a sense of wonder for the natural world--a sense of wonder that might help us today realize that we will protect only what we love." How do you think we can create and maintain a sense of wonder for the natural world? What policies, educational strategies, and public programs could we implement?

We hope you will join the discussion of one of the bestselling and most awarded books in recent years: Tuesday, January 3, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, January 19, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.