Andrea Wulf

BBC World Service Weekend: Interview

Here is an interview that I did with BBC World Service Weekend in conjunction with Paris Climate summit and Humboldt's early warnings about climate change and environmental destruction.

BBC World Service Humboldt Interview

click here for BBC website: Interview starts at 36.30 min

Sunday Times: Best Books 2015 - Biography

"Wulf's engaging and accomplished biography makes us see Humboldt as one of the great scientist–adventurers”

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New Scientist: Best Books of 2015

"Everyone’s heard the name. It’s dotted over half the world’s maps. But who knows why? Alexander von Humboldt was a scientific superstar, his life packed with adventures, discovery and a cast of 19th-century movers and shakers. Napoleon envied him his fame. Darwin was an ardent admirer. Read Andrea Wulf’s gripping biography and you will be wowed by him too. If Humboldt doesn’t win prizes I’ll eat my party hat."

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Independent: Best Nature Books of 2015

"Andrea Wulf's superb biography The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt is a re-evaluation of a great lost scientist whose thinking strongly affected the way we now conceptualise nature. Humboldt (1769-1859) was a polymath-adventurer who influenced Darwin, Jefferson, Thoreau, Goethe, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Hundreds of landmarks, animals and plants are named after him, but his most enduring legacy is the vision of nature as an interconnected whole; the idea is now so prevalent, of course, it seems strange to think it was ever an "idea" in the first place. His extensive travels mean his biography is also an adventure story, and Wulf combines scrapes and the science to great effect."

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Denmark: Interview The Invention of Nature

And here is an interview about The Invention of Nature published in Weekendavisen in Denmark

Download Denmark Weekendavisen Humboldt 

My Best Book of 2015 pick in Publishers Weekly

And here is my best book of 2015 pick in Publishers Weekly

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Telegraph: Best Science Books of 2015

“Andrea Wulf gives a portrait of the age's greatest botanist, Alexander von Humboldt in ‘The Invention of Nature’. Humboldt was a German Romantic to his toes: a friend of Goethe, follower of Kant and confidant of Schiller. His epic journeys across South America made him a celebrity, and his masterpiece, Cosmos, introduced the idea of nature as a teeming, thriving whole to his age. Humboldt's vision became the inspiration for Darwin and a whole generation of American Romantics, including Thoreau and Poe. Humboldt, like Einstein, breathed life into Kant's transcendental unity. We still live in the world they imagined, even if few of us comprehend it.”

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Review of Richard Mabey's 'Cabaret of Plants' in Mail on Sunday

Here is my review of Richard Mabey's new book 'Cabaret of Plants'"

Download Review of Mabey's Cabaret of Plants

The Times: The Invention of Nature

“In an energetic, original and masterly book, Andrea Wulf not only shows the greatness of the man, but the enduring power of his ideas … Wulf writes about complicated topics with lucidity and vitality. The Invention of Nature is a book of ideas, which repays careful reading … a most inspiring book’ – The Times

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Evening Standard: Best Books of 2015

“Andrea Wulf’s The Invention of Nature illumines the great German polymath, traveller and scientist with sparkling intellectual sympathy. Humboldt was said to be the most famous man in Europe next to Napoleon but the insular British need to be reminded of him sometimes. This is an absolutely stupendous biography.”

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