Humboldt’s Mexico
In the Footsteps of the Illustrious German Scientific Traveller
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
The incalculable influence of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) on biology, botany, geology, and meteorology deservedly earned him the reputation as the world’s most illustrious scientist before Charles Darwin. Humboldt’s breath-taking explorations of Mexico and South America from 1799 to 1804 are akin to Europe’s second “discovery” of the New World - this time, a scientific one. His Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain is a foundational document about Mexico and its cultures and is still widely consulted by anthropologists, geographers, and historians.
In Humboldt’s Mexico, Myron Echenberg presents a straightforward guide with historical and cultural context to Humboldt’s travels in Mexico. Humboldt packed a lifetime of scientific studies into one daunting year, and soon after published a four-volume account of his findings. His adventures range widely from inspections of colonial silver mines and hikes to the summits of volcanoes to meticulous examination of secret Spanish colonial archives in Mexico City and scientific discussions of archaeological sites of pre-Hispanic Indigenous cultures. Echenberg traces Humboldt’s journey, as described in his publications, his diary, and other writings, across the heartland of Mexico, while also pursuing Humboldt’s life, his science, his experiences, his influence on scholars of his time and after, and the various efforts by others to honour and at times to denigrate his legacy.
Part history, part travelogue, and always highly readable and informative, Humboldt’s Mexico is an engaging account of a gifted scientist and visionary that ranges across topics as diverse and broad as natural history was in his era.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half title
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Illustration Sources and Abbreviations
- Figures, Map, and Tables
- Chronology and Map of Humboldt’s Itinerary in New Spain, 1803–1804
- Mesoamerican Chronology
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Humboldt’s Achievements
- Prologue: Humboldt’s Mexican Adventure in Historical Context
- Part One Arrival in Mexico, 23 March to 12 April 1803: From Acapulco to Mexico City
- Part Two Visits to the Mexican Heartland, 14 May to 10 October 1803: Silver Mines and Active Volcanoes
- Part Three Homeward Bound, 30 January to 7 March 1804: Demography, Disease, and Departure from Veracruz
- Conclusion: Humboldt’s Legacy
- A Guide to Publications by or about Alexander von Humboldt in Mexico
- A Guide to Readings on Humboldt
- Citations
- Bibliography
- Index