"The Humboldt Current" Reviewed in Coffee House Digest

I've written a review of Aaron Sachs' thoughtful study of Alexander von Humboldt in the most recent issue of Coffee House Digest (the only free coffeehouse lifestyle publication distributed through independent coffeehouses). The book, The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism, focuses, naturally, on Humboldt, but also on those that were affected by his life, teachings, and writings, including J.N. Reynolds, the founder of the U.S. Exploring Expedition; Clarence King, the first director of the U.S. Geological Society; George Melville, chief engineer of a disastrous expedition to the North Pole; and Sierra Club founder John Muir. Humboldt's legacy left a mark on the lives of not only scientists, but great writers and thinkers - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau - and yet no one has heard of the Prussian. Why? I do not know. Hopefully Sachs' book will re-illuminate Humboldt's life and times and his importance in the natural sciences.

Interesting to note: Look most anywhere in the world and you'll find Humboldt's name. Lilies and penguins are named for him, orchids and squids. Humboldt Bay in Northern California is named for him, as is Humboldt, Tennessee, Humboldt, Kansas and Humboldt, South Dakota. An asteroid has his name as do two national parks (in Peru and Cuba). You can get your college degree at Humboldt State University in California and go on the ferris wheel at the Humboldt County Fair in Iowa. The short of it - he was enormously famous during his lifetime and Sachs reveals why and, further, why he shouldn't be forgotten.