Research Catalog
The Humboldt current : 19th century exploration and the sources of American environmentalism
- Title
- The Humboldt current : 19th century exploration and the sources of American environmentalism / Aaron Sachs.
- Author
- Sachs, Aaron (Aaron Jacob)
- Publication
- New York : Viking, 2006.
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Use in library | Q143.H9 S24 2006 | Off-site |
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Details
- Description
- xii, 496 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm
- Summary
- "The naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) achieved unparalleled fame in his own time, particularly in the United States. Today, however, he and his enormous legacy to American thought are virtually unknown." "In The Humboldt Current, Aaron Sachs seeks to reverse this undeserved obscurity by tracing Humboldt's pervasive influence on American history, specifically looking at the lives and careers of several nineteenth-century explorers who used Humboldt's notion of "unity in diversity" and his open-hearted spirit of exploration to develop a critique of their increasingly industrialized society."--BOOK JACKET.
- Subjects
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 447-472) and index.
- Contents
- Prologue : Humboldt in America : 1804-2004 -- Ch. 1. "The chain of connection" -- Excursion - exile : Napoleon's France -- Pt. 1. East - Humboldt and the influence of Europe -- Ch. 2. Personal narrative of a journey : radical Romanticism -- Ch. 3. Cosmos : unification ecology -- Excursion - Eureka : the death of Edgar Allan Poe -- Pt. 2. South - J. N. Reynolds and the "more comprehensive promise" of the Antarctic -- Ch. 4. "Rough notes of rough adventures" : exploration for exploration's sake -- Ch. 5. "Mocha-Dick" : the value of mental expansion -- Excursion - watersheds : 1859-1862 -- Pt. 3. West - Clarence King's experience of the frontier -- Ch. 6. Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada : the art of self-exposure -- Ch. 7. "Catastrophism and the evolution of environment" : a science of humility -- Excursion - Yreka : just north of Mount Shasta -- Pt. 4. North - George Wallace Melville and John Muir in extremis -- Ch. 8. In the Lena Delta : arctic tragedy and American imperialism -- Ch. 9. The cruise of the Corwin : nature, natives, nation -- Excursion - home : the Harriman expedition -- Ch. 10. The grounding of American environmentalism -- Epilogue : Humboldt on Chimborazo.
- ISBN
- 0670037753
- LCCN
- 2005057468
- OCLC
- 489635847
- ocn489635847
- SCSB-5267358
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries